Saturday, January 24 was the Regional Science Bowl competition where Monte Vista placed fourth out of twenty five schools in the Bay Area. The teams competed at Las Positas College in Livermore for the chance to take a trip east to Washington D.C. for the national competition.

The Monte Vista team consisted of students Daniel Blank, Neil Gupta, Niraek Jain-Sharma, Vishal Jain, and Brendan Sweeney. They won their Round Robin bracket and capped it with an elimination win over usual powerhouse Mission San Jose High School.

“There are four teams in the bracket,” Scott Getty, one of the coaches, said. “Mission San Jose is usually one of the top two teams and we beat them.”

Team coaches Rodger Johnson and Scott Getty are very proud of their team for their success especially considering they lost a couple of team members a few weeks prior to the competition due to those team member’s commitment to Speech and Debate.

“The team managed to bring in new people who performed extremely well,” Johnson said. “We have a strong young team for the next couple of years.”

In addition to defeating Mission San Jose who has always been a tough competitor, the team also set the bar higher for future teams.

“Going into it we were just hoping to her into the play off rounds,” Getty said. “But we ended up with our best finish since 2007.”

Everyone is proud of the Monte Vista team. Even with some troubles going into the competition, the Science Bowl team managed to emerge successful.

“I’just really proud of how the Science Bowl team came together at the last second. We pulled off one of the best finished we’ve ever had because we focused and worked hard,” Vishal Jain, team captain, said. “I think it’s just a testament to how determined we are and how talented people at Monte Vista are.”