Science Bowl team wins 2017 regionals

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Provided by Shaya Zarkesh

The team poses outside the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. From left to right: Venkat Sankar (12), Rajiv Movva (11), Shaya Zarkesh (11), coach Gary Blickenstaff, Derek Yen (11), and Swapnil Garg (11).

by Derek Yen, STEM Editor

The school’s Science Bowl team took first at the Science Bowl regional round held yesterday at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

Science Bowl is a national quizbowl-style academic competition sponsored by the US Department of Energy. Teams compete to answer science and math questions ranging from chemistry to physics to Earth science.

Last year, the school’s team advanced to the finals from the winner’s bracket and lost to Lynbrook High School’s team, taking second place. In this year’s finals, Harker’s team advanced to the finals from the loser’s bracket to again face Lynbrook, but ultimately prevailed.

“I’m ecstatic about this year’s regional win,” co-team advisor Robbie Korin said in an email interview. “Harker has had numerous second and third place finishes over the last ten years, so it was just a matter of time before the high school team reclaimed the regional win.”

A school team last qualified for regionals ten years ago with three consecutive wins in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

The team is composed of senior Venkat Sankar and juniors Swapnil Garg, Rajiv Movva, Derek Yen and Shaya Zarkesh. Senior Arjun Subramaniam is also on the team but was unable to attend.

Each of the 69 high school teams that won their regional round has qualified to compete in the national Science Bowl round at Washington, DC in late April. The school’s team will be attending, representing the California counties of Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz.