The Science Olympiad team won third place overall and 26 individual medals for its performance in the Feb. 13 regional competition at Antelope Valley College.

The team will advance to the state competition at Caltech April 2.

“I believe that our team put in significantly more effort this year than last year and it shows,” Science Olympiad Club president and senior Benjamin Porat said.

Competition events are done in pairs, according to Porat. Team members can choose which events they want to compete in — such as lab events, test events and engineering events — as well as with whom they want to work.

“Nearly everyone is good friends with their partners … the team is very close,” Porat said.

To qualify for the state competition, the team had to place in the top five overall at regionals.

Junior Angela Zhao sees this requirement as an incentive for team members to “not only [help their] partners but also [their] peers in their events.”

After competition, the team continued its tradition of engaging in an In-N-Out eating contest. Senior Everett Jiang won this year’s contest.

“It was quite incredible how fast Everett ate his burgers,” Porat said. “I don’t understand how that’s possible … or why anyone would want to speed-eat food.”

This year’s Science Olympiad competition was freshman Wayne Xiao’s first.

He described the moments before his first event to be “excruciatingly nerve-wracking.”

“As the day passed, however, it just felt good to be there … It was exhausting, but every bit of it was worth it,” Xiao said. “Competition was one of the best days of my life.”