Blair academic teams excel at nationals

Three Blair teams placed highly in separate national and international competitions recently.

The "It's Academic!" team, coached by social studies teacher David Swaney and Phyllis Fleischaker and led by senior captain Matthew Baron, won third place out of 865 teams in the spring 2003 International Knowledge Master Open competition.

The Ocean Sciences Bowl Team, representing the Chesapeake Bay region placed seventh in the nation at the National Ocean Sciences Bowl. Seniors Joshua Chang, Kevin Fang, Alex Harn and Evan Karlik joined teams from 23 other regions across the United States in La Jolla, California to compete on the campus of the University of California, San Diego from Apr 25-28.

Each round of competition involved a 6-minute buzzer round, two team challenge questions and a second 6-minute buzzer round. The top two teams in each of the four division then competed in a double-elimination tournament to declare the winner.

The top team from Cranston West High School in Rhode Island will receive an all-expense paid trip to Hawaii to visit marine laboratories over the summer.

The Science Bowl Team, representing Maryland, placed tenth in the country at the National Science Bowl. Led by senior captain Jared Sagoff, the team of juniors Ning Bao, Stanley Liu, John Shen and Anran Wang competed at the National 4-H Center.