Port Jefferson Places 2nd In Regional Science Olympiad

PORT JEFFERSON, NY — The Earl L. Vandermeulen High School’s two Science Olympiad teams participated and placed in the New York State Eastern Long Island Science Olympiad Division C Regional Competition recently held at Hauppauge High School, the Port Jefferson School District announced.

Accompanied by advisers Mr. Adam Bouchard and Ms. Amanda Brideson and science teachers Mrs. Melissa Garcia, Mr. Greg Gorniok, Mrs. Debra Hagmeyer, Mr. Jonathan Maletta and Ms. Nicole Sklar, the district placed second out of 52 competing teams and are one of the eight teams from the region who will attend the New York State competition in March at Le Moyne College in Syracuse.

Port Jefferson came home with 20 medals, with medals awarded for the first 10 places in each of the 26 events.

"We are extremely proud of all the hard work and commitment our students have done to achieve such amazing results," Brideson said.

The list of medals and the awarded students are as follows:

• 1st place – Grant Samara and Andrew Patterson for Fossils
• 1st place – Sinan Ates, Liam Gameng and William Wu for Protein Modeling
• 1st place – Hana Ali and Peggy Yin for Designer Genes
• 2nd place – Sinan Ates and Gavin Chambers for Anatomy and Physiology
• 2nd place – Liam Gameng and William Wu for Dynamic Planet
• 2nd place – Gil Zaltsman and Peggy Yin for Green Generation
• 2nd place – Liam Gameng and Grant Samara for Ping Pong Parachute
• 3rd place – Hugo Onghai and Peggy Yin for Sounds of Music
• 3rd place – Justin Garcia and Rachel Park for Wright Stuff
• 3rd place – Gani Ates and William Wu for Astronomy
• 4th place – Hugo Onghai and Andrew Patterson for Disease Detectives
• 4th place – Liam Gameng and Grant Samara for Geologic Mapping
• 5th place – Aaron Held and Gil Zaltsman for Water Quality
• 6th place – Aaron Held and Kyle Onghai for Circuit Lab
• 6th place – Kasumi Layne-Stasik and Gil Zaltsman for Ornithology
• 6th place – Hana Ali and Kasumi Layne-Stasik for Write It, Do It
• 7th place – Andrew Patterson and Grant Samara for Wright Stuff
• 7th place – Ricky Melucci and Logan Shaffer for Ping Pong Parachute
• 7th place – Sinan Ates and Dylan Scott with help from Ricky Melucci and Justin Garcia for Gravity Vehicle
• 10th place –Kyle Onghai and Dylan Scott for Detector Building