​The Benet Academy Science Alliance team has completed another year to be put down in the books. The Science Alliance team is home to over 30 students who are passionate about a vast number of topics in the scientific realm from Invasive Species to Astronomy. This year, the Science Alliance team had the privilege of competing at the Harlem Invite, Crystal Lake Central Invite, the Niles West Invite, College of DuPage Regional event, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign State competition. From the very first meeting, the students on the Science Alliance team were thirsting to make another run at state, which they had done last year.

At the first event at Harlem High School, the Anatomy and Physiology team consisting of Gino Kozel and Christopher Zeuthen placed in 9th out of forty-seven teams. Ryan and Sarah Haybeck scored 6th place in Invasive Species, Disease Detectives, and Rocks and Minerals, and Joseph Ravichandran and Michael O’Grady came in 2nd place in Optics. This strong showing at the Harlem Invite created excitement among the team for their next competition at Crystal Lake Central where the varsity team came in 7th place out of forty-six schools competing, and not far behind was the junior varsity team which scored 8th place. At Niles West, eighteen of their teams scored in the top ten for their events.

The invite at Niles West marked the end of the preliminaries, and it was time to get down to business and compete at regionals, which would determine if the Science Alliance team would make it down to state. At the Central DuPage Regionals, the Science Alliance team performed stellar and placed for state. Once the students on the Science Alliance team realized they made it to state, they enjoyed the excitement that came along with it but became dedicated to placing the best they could at the state competition. The date, April 29, of the state competition came, and the team was prepared. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign state competition, the Haybeck siblings and the freshman prodigy, Paul Skaluba stood out. The Haybecks scored 1st in Invasive Species, and Paul Skaluba came in 4th in Towers. Club moderator, Mrs. Volin, was extremely happy with the Haybecks’ performance at state, as well as that of Paul Skaluba. In addition, Mrs. Volin has high hopes to return to the state competition again next year and hopes the students on the Science Alliance team can score even better by starting earlier in the year.

Overall, the Science Alliance team had another successful year and are hoping they can do even better next year.