When last heard from at midday today, members of the Poudre High School Science Bowl team were headed to the White House to meet with the president or the first lady as the winners of a national competition that whittled down 12,000 participants to the triumphant five from Fort Collins.
The Poudre Impalas prevailed today over the other finalist, State College Area High School from Pennsylvania, with a quick identification of an infrared spectroscopy image of a random molecule, formic acid, which puts the sting in bee stings.
“I’m going to sleep a lot better tonight,” team captain Sam Sun said at the conclusion of the five-day event sponsored by the Department of Energy.
“The win has sort of sunk in,” said senior Winston Gao. “The White House part hasn’t sunk in yet.”
Neither has the part where Sun, Gao and teammates Patrick Chaffey, Sam Elder and Logan Wright win a two-week trip to Melbourne, Australia, for the International Youth Science Summit in July.
Team coach Jack Lundt banned himself from the room during the contest because attendance pushes his blood pressure to dangerously high levels.
“It is so difficult to get to this point. The complexity of the questions was mind-boggling,” said Lundt of the “Jeopardy”-like buzz-in contest. “I had no idea they knew some of this stuff.”
More than 300 high school students from 42 states competed Thursday through today in Washington. Each team first had to win one 64 regional tournaments with 12,000 participants to qualify for the finals.
Staff writer Electa Draper can be reached at 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com.
