By Mary Rose Fissinger
The Harvard-Westlake B Team made it to the final round of the Regional Science Bowl Competition at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power building. As reward for their runner-up finish, they received $2000 for the school and $750 in scholarship money each.
The team consisted of captain Hank Adelmann ’11, Jack Petok ’11, Jeffrey Bu ’12, Rhett Gentile ’13 and Brian Jun ’13, with Jun serving as the alternate. Math and Computer Science teacher Jacob Hazard coached them.
After the seven rounds of play in the morning, the B team was tied for first in their division. They then entered into the double elimination tournament. They were defeated in the second round, and entered the consolation bracket. The B Team won their next 5 rounds, including an extremely close match against Venice High which was forced into a five question tie-breaking round when Adelmann correctly answered a bonus question worth 10 points.
“Several things contributed particularly to our success, mostly the deadly focus Jack Petok went into after we had some less than great rounds in the robin round,” Adelmann said.
Entering the championship round from the consolation bracket, they would have had to defeat the opposing team, defending Regional Champions North Hollywood, twice in order to claim the regional title. However, they lost the first round of the Championships, and North Hollywood claimed their 12th Regional Championship in 13 years.
“It felt like the miracle on ice,” Adelmann said. “We came into the DWP with the hope to scrape by getting out of the robin round, and we ended up versus the national champs in the finals. I’m really proud of our team and how everyone did. It’s a tad bittersweet though, Jack and I are seniors and wish we could go back for another try next year.”
The Harvard-Westlake A Team, consisting of captain Jeffrey Sperling ’11, Colin Campbell ’12, Saj Sri-Kumar ’12, Justin Ho ’12, David Lim ’13 and coached by Math teacher Kevin Weis, finished the morning rounds in first place in their division, but lost the first two rounds of double elimination.
