The Ladue Schools community has much to celebrate after a historic showing at the Science Olympiad National Tournament at the University of Southern California, May 22-23. Competing against the top 60 teams in the country, out of more than 7,000 teams nationwide, both our middle and high school teams proved they belong in the elite tier of STEM scholars.

The Ladue Middle School team delivered a record-breaking performance, finishing 9th place overall in the nation! The team shattered its own previous medal records, earning an astounding nine medals across 26 events. In total, 19 of their events finished in the top 20 nationally.

Middle School Medalists (Division B):

• National Champions (1st Place): Crime Busters (Oishi Dasgupta and Chloe Zhang)
• 2nd Place: Boomilever (Arjun Jain and Jai Pandian)
• 2nd Place: Dynamic Planet (Charlie Fan and Rachel Liu)
• 3rd Place: Mission Possible (Alice Chang and Selena Yang)
• 3rd Place: Rocks and Minerals (Charlie Fan and Jessie Liang)
• 4th Place: Codebusters (Oishi Dasgupta, Chloe Zhang, Kevin Shi)
• 5th Place: Metric Mastery (Louis Shen and Chloe Zhang)
• 6th Place: Remote Sensing (Louis Shen and Jai Pandian)
• 6th Place: Ping Pong Parachute (Krishna Lalithmohan and Max Wang)

The Ladue Horton Watkins High School team also excelled on the national stage, finishing 24th overall. The high school saw 12 events finish in the top 20 nationally, including two podium-topping performances.

High School Medalists (Division C):

• National Champions (1st Place): Anatomy and Physiology (Sanjay Adireddi and Zoran Pan)
• 2nd Place: Boomilever (Frank Tian and Aiden Zu)

While the hardware is impressive, the success of these teams reflects months of rigorous preparation, critical thinking, and collaborative problem-solving. 

"We could not be more proud of their successes, and the character displayed all weekend," says Michael Clay, Ladue Middle School Science Olympiad Head Coach.

Success at this level is a massive team effort. A special thank you goes to our dedicated coaches, led by Michael Clay and Dr. Hannah Shayer-McLeod (High School Head Coach), along with Dr. Fayzan Ali, Kelly Arl, Dr. Megan Baebler, Grace Carcamo, Reva Davis, Melody Frese, Kelly Hake, Donna Matthews, Dr. Bill Middleton, Raina Norman, and Natalie Zook.

Congratulations to all our Science Olympiad competitors for representing Ladue Schools with such distinction!