Pennsylvania 2014

[ckssv07]

I would like to congratulate every person and team who competed at the State Tournament yesterday. Everyone competed excellently and was very surprised by how competitive everything was. I would like to congratulate Strath Haven and Bala Cynwyd on their great performance and making things all the more competitive. I commend Springhouse on their outstanding performance, and wish them the best of luck at Nationals. Everyone has offered me a great 4 years and I wish all the best to all of the teams competing next year in div. B. Continue to hold up the level at which PA B is thought of. Congrats to Harriton and Penncrest for making it to nationals, and all the teams who made everything so competitive in div C. I can't wait to get to know everyone at Nationals.
All the best, from SSA

[tns12]

Congrats to SSA and Springhouse for two great victories! Make Pennsylvania proud!

[AlphaTauri]

Congratulations to everyone at PA States yesterday, particularly Harriton (wow, 17 years), Penncrest, Shady Side, and Springhouse! And a special shout-out to JCicc for yet another awesome astro test :) I'm going to miss those next year...

[VikP]

Congrats to everyone who participated at the state tournament yesterday! Thank You everyone for your support to Springhouse ! We are very excited to go to the national events and are still shocked that we were able to place 2nd at states yesterday! We are thrilled to represent PA Division B along with the long time winners Shady Side Academy! Thank You everyone again!

[Gearbox]

Congrats to everyone who participated at the state tournament yesterday! Thank You everyone for your support to Springhouse ! We are very excited to go to the national events and are still shocked that we were able to place 2nd at states yesterday! We are thrilled to represent PA Division B along with the long time winners Shady Side Academy! Thank You everyone again!

Congratulations to you and your team. I always love seeing new teams make it to nationals. If any team deserves to go to Nats this year, it's you because of the hard work and dedication that you guys put into science Olympiad this year. I, as does the rest of Shady Side, will be very happy to see you in Florida. Congrats again!!

[computergeek3]

Congratulations to everyone who competed yesterday! It was such a competitive year in both divisions, and yesterday was most certainly the culmination of all the hard work we've all put in since the beginning of the year. Best of luck to all of the teams competing at Nationals in two weeks!

As a side note, changing everything from C Division to Grad made me realize just how wonderful an experience Science Olympiad has been and I wish everyone the best of luck in the future.

[StogaSciOly]

On behalf of the Conestoga High School Science Olympiad team, we congratulate Harriton, Penncrest, Springhouse, and Shady Side for fabulous performances. Division C was a fight until the end this year-- but we wouldn't have changed it for the world. Each and every team has something to be proud of. Although we wish it could have been our year, we would change nothing. Conestoga will stand as a powerhouse, and one day-- hopefully next year-- the younger members of our family can end the 3rd place curse. Good luck to PA at Nationals! We'll all be rooting for you.

[EastStroudsburg13]

Full top 10's

B Division
1. Shady Side
2. Springhouse
3. Bala Cynwyd
4. Strath Haven
5. Kutztown
6. Devon Prep
7. Park Forest
8. Welsh Valley
9. Springton Lake
10. Quaker Valley

C Division
1. Harriton
2. Penncrest
3. Conestoga
4. Strath Haven
5. Bayard Rustin
6. Northwestern Lehigh
7. Perkiomen Valley
8. Shady Side
9. North Pocono
10. Stroudsburg

Overall it was very competitive, and as expected, B Division was full of surprises! I knew Springhouse was a real threat to get second, but being a threat and actually winning are two separate things, so awesome job to them for pulling it off! Also great job to Bala Cynwyd, who was there step for step throughout the entire ceremony and probably didn't lose by much. None of the C Division teams were really all that shocking in my opinion, all of them were at least on people's radars (although people really slept on Perkiomen Valley, haha. Guess their consistency pulled it off for them), but those top places went down to the wire! I was pulling for Stoga personally, but I know everyone going to nationals will represent Pennsylvania well!

I will go back and see which poll submissions were closest to the actual results, and then announce it when I figure it out. Should be interesting.

[havenguy]

On behalf of the Conestoga High School Science Olympiad team, we congratulate Harriton, Penncrest, Springhouse, and Shady Side for fabulous performances. Division C was a fight until the end this year-- but we wouldn't have changed it for the world. Each and every team has something to be proud of. Although we wish it could have been our year, we would change nothing. Conestoga will stand as a powerhouse, and one day-- hopefully next year-- the younger members of our family can end the 3rd place curse. Good luck to PA at Nationals! We'll all be rooting for you.

Along the same lines, we here at Strath Haven wish Harriton, Penncrest, Shady Side and Springhouse good luck at Nationals!

C Division is...brutal. But definitely very, very exciting!

The sophomores and juniors on our team really believe that this year was a stepping stone, and hopefully in a few years we'll be giving the top three teams a run for their money!

[EastStroudsburg13]

All right, I have compiled the results of the polls! But first, an explanation of my methodology:

• If you put the team in the correct place, you got 5 points
• If you were one place away, you got 3 points
• If you were two or three places away, you got 2 points
• If you were more places away, but had the team in your top 10, you got 1 point
• In case of a tie, the first tiebreaker is most correct places. The second tiebreaker is most places with at least 1 point. Further tiebreakers are by who had a better score for 1st, then for 2nd, etc.

I tested several formulas and felt that this one had the best balance of rewarding picking accurately and picking more top 10 teams. This is by no means set in stone, and I am perfectly willing to try to calculate the top scores by other methods! Now, as for this formula, here are the top 1/5 for each division:

Division B: Average score of submissions = 18.2, number of submissions = 25
1. silverheart7 - 26 points
2. Algorhythmic - 24 points
3. roadscholar11 - 23 points
4. solakmagic - 22 points
5. EastStroudsburg13 - 22 points

silverheart7's prediction was Shady Side, Bala Cynwyd, Strath Haven, Springhouse, Abington Heights, Wyoming Area, Park Forest, Hershey, Welsh Valley, Quaker Valley. Congrats for having the most accurate prediction!

Division C: Average score of submissions = 23.5, number of submissions = 37
1. AlphaTauri - 32 points
2. EastStroudsburg13 - 32 points
3. syo_astro - 31 points
4. shms_princess - 30 points
5. Meteorologyman - 30 points
6. rockhound - 29 points
7. nejanimb - 28 points

AlphaTauri's prediction was Harriton, Penncrest, Conestoga, Rustin, Strath Haven, Lower Merion, Northwestern Lehigh, Perkiomen Valley, North Pocono, State College. Congrats for having the most accurate prediction!

Also, special shout-outs go to Algorhythmic, who got the top 4 entirely right, and syo_astro, who got the entire top 5 right! They were the only ones to get that far and be perfect!