Posted Monday, April 3, 2006, The OG, news

If any school can be considered a powerhouse in the Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering Academic Challenge, it's Uni High.

Each spring since 1998, Uni has won the WYSE state title in Division 300, which is for schools with an enrollment of 300 or fewer students.

Former Uni math teacher Carol Castellon got the ball rolling back in 1996, when she organized a team that placed third in the state. A second-place finish followed in 1997, and it's been top of the charts ever since.

Last year, with physics teacher Jim Carrubba as team adviser, Uni won the title with a final score of 471 points. Chicago's Morgan Park Academy placed second with 437.3 points.

Uni's currrent crop of WYSE students will try to keep the streak alive today as they compete in the Division 300 finals at the Illini Union.

WYSE is a series of tests drawn from senior-year high school and freshman-year college curricula. The test categories include mathematics, English, biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, and engineering graphics.

To make it to today's contest, Uni competed in a regional meet at Parkland College in February and a sectional meet at Eastern Illinois University in March. However, advancement was a foregone conclusion, since Uni students competed only against themselves in a special category called “Division Unlimited.” The idea was to give other small schools the opportunity to advance in Division 300.

“We could beat a lot of [other bigger] schools if we took it more seriously,” Carrubba told the Gargoyle last year. “It's ridiculous that we should win the state title eight years in a row. If we were serious, I think we should move up to a higher division to compete against schools like IMSA [Illinois Math and Science Academy].”

— Gargoyle staff