Pennsylvania 2017

[hmcginny]

Wow, they beat the 50 we put up my senior year (with eerily similar medal counts). Well done Harriton!

[Unome]

Lol. Well then.

Division B (24 total teams)
1. Strath Haven (74)
2. Bala Cynwyd (104)
3. Garnet Valley (138)
4. J.R. Fugett (147)
5. Welsh Valley (174)
6. Springton Lake (202)
7. Stetson (209)
8. Devon Prep (223)
9. Tredyffrin/Easttown (247)
10. Haverford (257)
11. Unami (260)
12. E.N. Peirce (292)

Division C (36 total teams)
1. Harriton (49)
2. Conestoga (104)
3. Bayard Rustin (129)
4. Lower Merion (131)
5. Penncrest (155)
6. Central Bucks South (187)
7. North Penn (212)
8. Garnet Valley (227)
9. Strath Haven (274)
10. Haverford (279)
11. West Chester East (338)
12. Downingtown STEM Academy (339)

Link to B Scores
Link to C Scores

So, uhhh.... Harriton is really good. Worth noting that Lower Merion placed 27th in WIDI, and could easily have placed above Rustin otherwise. Lower Merion might be a dark horse for 2nd at states. While Rustin is not as good as they were last year, I still don't think they've fallen off too far, and are very much still in the mix for 2nd. Stoga seems fully recovered from their down year last year, although they still seem a half step behind their best teams, give the gap between them and Harriton.

East pretty much covered anything I was going to say about Div C. I might even rank Harriton ahead of Seven Lakes at this point (though for them there's only MIT to go off of so far).

Strath Haven did really well; they had a similar score at regionals in 2012, when they qualified for Nationals. Garnet Valley and J.R. Fugett look really strong (Fugett didn't even qualify for state last year). Central Bucks South came rather close to Penncrest, though they had far less medals so I doubt they're much of a threat.

[BDake]

Hooray, I can make my predictions now! This is the part of the year where I pretend like I know something about Science Olympiad in this state, and then in a month realize how horribly wrong I was.
Some quick explanation: this year, I am going to split up Southeast from the rest of the regions. This is being done for two reasons. First, Southeast is the first regional, and it occurs very soon after North Pocono, so in order to allow people to get properly offended at my predictions, I’m going to post them soon enough before the competition. Second, it just happens to be the largest regional overall, and in C, the overwhelmingly best regional in the state, so it doesn’t hurt to give a little extra attention to the C side of things.

With that in mind, let’s get into it!

B Division: 1. Bala Cynwyd, 2. Strath Haven, 3. Welsh Valley, 4. Garnet Valley, 5. Devon Prep

Last year’s Bala Cynwyd team was one of the most meteoric one-year rises from any team in recent PA history. Before the season, I’m not sure anyone expected them to contest for the top spots in the state, and yet they ended up making nationals fairly comfortably and performing admirably at the highest stage. Early returns do suggest a decent-sized drop-off, though, and the challenge from Strath Haven will be stiff. However, I think BC wins this in a close race; the bulk of their improvement last year came between Rustin and Regionals, and I have a feeling there will be significant improvement during that span this year, as well. The spots behind them are as wide open as they’ve ever been, as Welsh Valley’s somewhat lackluster finish at Rustin (by their standards) might leave the door open for a surprise team. However, Rustin was early enough in the season that Welsh Valley has had more than enough time to bring things together, and after all, they’re keeping up a 12-year streak of placing in the top 3 at regionals. I’m still thinking they’re going to be around, for the time being. They will have a strong contender for 3rd in Garnet Valley, though; a team that’s never placed higher than 5th at regionals, but turned heads with a strong 5th place finish at Rustin, in what was a still very strong, if somewhat depleted, field. Beating an Eagle View team that later placed 4th at Little Tiger is no small feat either. If they show strong at regionals, they could be a dark horse for a top 10 place at states. Devon Prep also might have a shot at defeating WV, but I’ve put them at fifth, because their invitational results have been less impressive than GV’s, and they don’t have the track record of WV. There are some interesting teams behind them, such as J.R. Fugett, who has returned to SE and also had a strong Rustin, Stetson, the always-consistent Rustin feeder, and Springton Lake, which has cooled down from their 2013-15 peak, but will likely remain relevant. However, Devon Prep has the recent history and the pedigree to claim the fifth spot.

Looks like EastStroudsburg13 wasn't horribly wrong at all, and pretty spot on with Division B predictions - Strath Haven (74) and Bala Cynwyd (104) 1st and 2nd... He did see a strong contender in Garnet Valley (138) for 3rd. Guess the door that was open for a "surprise team" was J.R. Fugett (147) in a close 4th place to back up their performance at Rustin this year. Welsh Valley (174) rounded out the top 5. Springton Lake and Stetson (also on EastStroudsburg13's radar in the predictions) round out the teams advancing to States. Should be a strong showing from this region at Juniata in late April.

[Avogadro]

Hooray, I can make my predictions now! This is the part of the year where I pretend like I know something about Science Olympiad in this state, and then in a month realize how horribly wrong I was.
Some quick explanation: this year, I am going to split up Southeast from the rest of the regions. This is being done for two reasons. First, Southeast is the first regional, and it occurs very soon after North Pocono, so in order to allow people to get properly offended at my predictions, I’m going to post them soon enough before the competition. Second, it just happens to be the largest regional overall, and in C, the overwhelmingly best regional in the state, so it doesn’t hurt to give a little extra attention to the C side of things.

With that in mind, let’s get into it!

B Division: 1. Bala Cynwyd, 2. Strath Haven, 3. Welsh Valley, 4. Garnet Valley, 5. Devon Prep

Last year’s Bala Cynwyd team was one of the most meteoric one-year rises from any team in recent PA history. Before the season, I’m not sure anyone expected them to contest for the top spots in the state, and yet they ended up making nationals fairly comfortably and performing admirably at the highest stage. Early returns do suggest a decent-sized drop-off, though, and the challenge from Strath Haven will be stiff. However, I think BC wins this in a close race; the bulk of their improvement last year came between Rustin and Regionals, and I have a feeling there will be significant improvement during that span this year, as well. The spots behind them are as wide open as they’ve ever been, as Welsh Valley’s somewhat lackluster finish at Rustin (by their standards) might leave the door open for a surprise team. However, Rustin was early enough in the season that Welsh Valley has had more than enough time to bring things together, and after all, they’re keeping up a 12-year streak of placing in the top 3 at regionals. I’m still thinking they’re going to be around, for the time being. They will have a strong contender for 3rd in Garnet Valley, though; a team that’s never placed higher than 5th at regionals, but turned heads with a strong 5th place finish at Rustin, in what was a still very strong, if somewhat depleted, field. Beating an Eagle View team that later placed 4th at Little Tiger is no small feat either. If they show strong at regionals, they could be a dark horse for a top 10 place at states. Devon Prep also might have a shot at defeating WV, but I’ve put them at fifth, because their invitational results have been less impressive than GV’s, and they don’t have the track record of WV. There are some interesting teams behind them, such as J.R. Fugett, who has returned to SE and also had a strong Rustin, Stetson, the always-consistent Rustin feeder, and Springton Lake, which has cooled down from their 2013-15 peak, but will likely remain relevant. However, Devon Prep has the recent history and the pedigree to claim the fifth spot.

Looks like EastStroudsburg13 wasn't horribly wrong at all, and pretty spot on with Division B predictions - Strath Haven (74) and Bala Cynwyd (104) 1st and 2nd... He did see a strong contender in Garnet Valley (138) for 3rd. Guess the door that was open for a "surprise team" was J.R. Fugett (147) in a close 4th place to back up their performance at Rustin this year. Welsh Valley (174) rounded out the top 5. Springton Lake and Stetson (also on EastStroudsburg13's radar in the predictions) round out the teams advancing to States. Should be a strong showing from this region at Juniata in late April.

Seconding that EastStroudsburg's predictions were eerily accurate, with only a few minor differences.

I try to avoid putting in input about things that involve my team or even my region for the most part, but I will say a few things. I'll give my version of "Holy **** Harriton did ridiculously well". And congratulations are in order for CB South, whom I tend to forget exists (sorry) but performed quite well this year.

Can't speak much to Div B, but things don't look to be astoundingly surprising there. BC seems to have taken a hit.

[MLMSOGA]

Does anyone know what happened to Strath Haven?

[maxxxxx]

Does anyone know what happened to Strath Haven?

They're probably following the trend of their middle school who got 4th at Regionals in 2014(after a few years of 1st, not that 4th is bad). I'd expect them to be back in the usual range soon.

[havenguy]

Does anyone know what happened to Strath Haven?

I can shed some light on this. Unfortunately, the senior class this year had a very difficult time due to some issues with coaching. On top of that, there were very few returning members relative to previous years: last year, we had 14 total people on the team, and seven seniors graduated, leaving only seven left. These things happen with small programs.

Honestly, I feel extremely sad that this senior grade had unforeseen issues with finding a coach again. The exact same thing happened to them in 9th grade, which is why the two grades below (currently 10th and 11th) have very few people relative to most years, since most high school members competed in middle school.

That being said, congratulations to SH Middle School!

[maxxxxx]

So I noticed on the North Pocono results that River Hill was marked as a PA team, but I thought they were from Maryland. Is there another River Hill from PA?

[jonboyage]

So I noticed on the North Pocono results that River Hill was marked as a PA team, but I thought they were from Maryland. Is there another River Hill from PA?

They are indeed marked as a MD team:
http://www.npscioly.org/invitational/Fi ... esults.pdf

[maxxxxx]

So I noticed on the North Pocono results that River Hill was marked as a PA team, but I thought they were from Maryland. Is there another River Hill from PA?

They are indeed marked as a MD team:
http://www.npscioly.org/invitational/Fi ... esults.pdf

They were marked as PA on the physical copy a few pages back. Thanks for clearing that up