A team of Wayzata High School students took home the National Science Bowl title on Monday, capturing honors that include an all-expense-paid nine-day trip to Alaska.
Wayzata defeated Dulles High School of Sugar Land, Texas, for victory in the U.S. Department of Energy National Science Bowl at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Geoffrey Chen, Ben Weiner, Matthew Qu, Aayush Gupta and Stephen Chen achieved the victory, coached by Amanda Laden. They won the regional in St. Paul in January, coming out on top among 33 teams from 17 schools who went toe to toe answering tossup questions, with a correct answer earning a shot at bonus points.
Laden was quick to acknowledge that her team members have a better mastery of science than she does.
"Not even close, not even close," she said. "I teach biology, and they were answering biology questions before I even knew what area the question was in."
While being careful to give props to everyone on the team, Laden called senior Geoffrey Chen "a cut above the rest, just phenomenal. He would have the answer even before the question was completed. There was oohing and aahing in the room."
Wayzata needed to defeat Sugar Land twice for the title in the double-elimination format, after losing to the Houston-area team in an earlier round Sunday.
"We came into nationals not expecting too much," said Gupta, a junior with designs on a career in biomedical engineering.
