U-High’s Illinois Science Olympiad team, one of three divisions of U-High’s science team, will advance to state in late April after placing first in the March 3 Harper College regional.

According to co-captain Serena Thomas, a senior, only the varsity team that consists of 15 members will progress to state, but they will take five alternates from the junior varsity team.

While the top five teams get a bid to state, Serena said achieving first place shows how much the team has grown since the beginning of the season.

“I am really proud that we were able to lead the team this far and get first place at regionals,” Serena said. “That’s something that really shows the improvement that both our JV and varsity teams have had since our first competition of the year.”

Co-captian Fermi Boonstra, a senior, believes that excelling in the regional competition was especially rewarding since it affirms the team’s diligence this season.

Fermi said, “But we really wanted to come out on top just because it would feel good and our team has worked really hard throughout the season, and we wanted to see our hard work pay off.”