By Benjamin Fu

Gargoyle staff reporter


Posted Saturday, Feb. 10, 2007, The OG, news & student awards

Tom Wiltzius, now a Stanford freshman,

displays Uni's 2006 WYSE state title trophy.

The face on his T-shirt belongs to faculty

sponsor “Ray” Carrubba. (Gargoyle photo)

(click to enlarge)

FOR THE LAST nine years, Uni students have won the Illinois small-school championship in the Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering Academic Challenge.

This year's WYSE team will be after a 10th straight title, but with a twist. Instead of competing in the small-school category, known as Division 300 (for schools with enrollments of 300 students or fewer), Uni will compete in Division 700 (enrollments of 301 to 700).

The quest for a 10th championship began Thursday when 20 Uni students took part in the WYSE regional contest held at Parkland College.

WYSE competitions feature a series of 40-minute tests in seven different areas: biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering graphics, English, mathematics, and physics.

Uni was the only school in the Division Unlimited category (schools with any number of students), and consequently won every award for the division.

Typically at the regional and sectional level, Uni competes in Division Unlimited in order to allow smaller schools to advance to the state finals.

Once at state, Uni switches to a specific enrollment division. Division 700 should provide the WYSE team with more competition than Division 300 did.

The next step for Uni will be the March 8 sectional contest at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. The state finals for Division 700 will be held April 18 at the Illini Union on the University of Illinois campus.

Physics teacher James Carrubba is the team's faculty sponsor.

The following students placed in the top three of their respective events at the Parkland regional:

Biology

— 1st: Benjamin Fu

— 2nd: Luke Chiang

— 3rd: Jacquelin Hedeman, Ethan Stone

Chemistry

— 1st: Alex Cahill

— 2nd: Aria Collopy

— 3rd: Victoria Wang

Computer Science

— 1st: Marquis Wang

— 2nd: Robert Boyce

— 3rd: Benjamin Schaap

Engineering Graphics

— 1st: Victoria Wang

— 2nd: Benjamin Schaap

— 3rd: Nicole Gong

English

— 1st: Ben Hyman

— 2nd: Nicole Gong

— 3rd: Christine Cheng, Benjamin Fu, Jacquelin Hedeman

Mathematics

— 1st: Marquis Wang

— 2nd: Chandra Pathuri, Jennifer Roloff

— 3rd: Robert Boyce, Christine Cheng

Physics

— 1st: Daisy Hassani

— 2nd: Alex Cahill

— 3rd: Ian Chen

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— Gargoyle coverage: Uni wins ninth consecutive WYSE state title