California (South)
| California (South) | |
|---|---|
 State flag | |
| General Information | |
| Member of SO since | 1985 |
| Total teams | 468 ( 6.1% 2024 to 2025)
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| Division B Champion | Sierra Vista Middle School |
| Division C Champion | Troy High School |
| State Tournament Location | Caltech |
| Website | www |
California (South), colloquially known as SoCal, governs the southern half of California. See California (North) for the northern half. It holds a separate tournament due to distance issues.
History
The state has participated in Science Olympiad since 1986. It can claim 18 national titles, the most of any state, and 15 of them from Division C (with Ohio the runner-up at 6): one from Gompers Secondary School (Division B), two from Sierra Vista Middle School (Division B), two from La Jolla High School (Division C), and thirteen from Troy High School (Division C).
The only three teams to have won the state championship in Division C are Gompers Secondary School, La Jolla High School, and most recently Troy High School, who has won the last 29 state tournaments. All three schools have won the national championship before (Gompers in Div B).
The first dynasty team in Division B was El Rancho Charter School, who won the state tournament every year except 2006 from 1997-2008, placing as high as 2nd at Nationals in 1999. Muscatel Middle School became the second dynasty from 2009-2016, placing as high as 4th at Nationals in 2011. They abruptly ended their program in 2016.
Since 2017, no teams in Division B have won the state tournament twice in a row. Until 2020, the state tournament was a toss-up between Jeffrey Trail Middle School, Oak Valley Middle School, and Kraemer Middle School. In 2020, due to concerns about the 2019-20 Coronavirus outbreak, the state tournament was cancelled for the first time in state history and its bids to Nationals for the year were forfeited until Nationals was cancelled as well. After 2020, Division B was dominated by Jeffrey Trail Middle School and Sierra Vista Middle School, both from Irvine. In 2022, Sierra Vista became the first Division B team from Southern California to win Nationals since 1987 and the first team to win Nationals on their first appearance. In 2025, Sierra Vista set a state record for the best winning score (38 points) and went on to win Nationals with the first sub-100 score at any in-person National Tournament.
Past State Champions
This is a record of the past state champions and runners up, and their respective places at the national competition, if applicable. Scores at the state competition may be shown in parentheses. Past national champions are bolded. (*In 2014 two events were not included in the final scores)
Format
Southern California runs a closed regional system, assigning teams to regionals geographically - historically, teams located in counties not covered by a region could participate in one of the existing regions of their choice, although at this time all counties in Southern California are covered by a region. It is common for tournaments in Southern California to have teams set up homebases at outdoors locations.
Most regional tournaments in Southern California are combined B/C tournaments, but the San Diego region historically has run separate Division B and Division C tournaments due to size. Bids for the state tournament are allocated primarily proportionally.
California as a whole is allotted National Tournament bids (historically always 2 per division) according to its registration, which internally are divided between Southern California and Northern California, each having 1 bid per division.
Tournaments
| Name | Type | Date | Division | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Oak Invitational | Invitational | 2025-12-13 | C | In-person |
| Oak Valley Invitational | Invitational | 2026-01-10 | B | In-person |
| USC Invitational | Invitational | 2026-01-17 | B/C | In-person |
| Official California Invitational | Invitational | 2026-01-20 | B/C | Satellite SO |
| Carmel Valley Invitational | Invitational | 2026-01-24 | B | In-person |
| Highlander Invitational | Invitational | 2026-01-24 | B/C | In-person |
| High Desert Invitational | Invitational | 2026-01-31 | B/C | Satellite SO |
| Peacock Invitational | Invitational | 2026-02-07 | B | Satellite SO |
| Triton Invitational | Invitational | 2026-02-21 | C | In-person |
| Troy Invitational | Invitational | 2025-02-08 | B | In-person |
| San Diego Regional | Regional | 2026-02-07 | B | In-person |
| San Diego Regional | Regional | 2026-02-07 | C | In-person |
| Los Angeles Regional (Antelope Valley College) | Regional | 2026-02-14 | B/C | In-person |
| Orange County Regional | Regional | 2026-02-14 | B/C | In-person |
| Los Angeles Regional (Rio Hondo College) | Regional | 2026-02-28 | B/C | In-person |
| Santa Barbara Regional | Regional | 2026-03-07 | B/C | In-person |
| Inland Empire Regional | Regional | 2026-03-14 | B/C | In-person |
| Los Angeles Regional (Pasadena City College) | Regional | 2026-02-07 | C | In-person |
| 2025 California (South) State Tournament | State | B/C | In-person | |
| UCLA/Aerospace Corporation Invitational | Invitational | B | Satellite SO | |
| 2026 National Tournament | National | 2026-05-23 | B/C | In-person |
State Tournament
- 1989 location: California State Fullerton April 15, 1989
- 1991 location: California State Fullerton April 13, 1991
- 1993 location: California State Fullerton March 27, 1993
- 1994 location: California State Fullerton April 9, 1994
- 2002 location: California State Long Beach April 13, 2002
- 2004 location: California State Polytechnic University, Pomona May 1, 2004
- 2005 location: Long Beach City College April 16, 2005
- 2006 location: Tesoro High School, Rancho Santa Margarita April 1, 2006
- 2007 location: California State Long Beach April 14, 2007
- 2008 location: California State Long Beach April 12, 2008
- 2009 location: California State Long Beach April 18, 2009
- 2010 location: Valencia High School, Placentia April 10, 2010
- 2011 location: Canyon High School, Anaheim April 9, 2011
- 2012 location: Canyon High School, Anaheim April 14, 2012
- 2013 location: Canyon High School, Anaheim April 6, 2013
- 2014 location: Canyon High School, Anaheim April 5, 2014
- 2015 location: Canyon High School, Anaheim April 4, 2015
- 2016 location: California Institute of Technology (Caltech), April 2, 2016
- 2017 location: California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Polytechnic School, April 8, 2017
- 2018 location: California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Polytechnic School, April 7, 2018
- 2019 location: California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Polytechnic School, April 6, 2019
- 2020 location: California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Polytechnic School, April 4, 2020 (Cancelled)
- 2021 location: Online, April 3, 2021 (through the Mini SO model)
- 2022 location: Online, April 2, 2022 (through the Satellite SO model)
- 2023 location: California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Polytechnic School, April 8, 2023
- 2024 location: California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Polytechnic School, April 6, 2024
- 2025 location: California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Polytechnic School, April 12, 2025
Results
Available results newer than 2010 can be found at the State Tournament Results page.
Teams
Division B
Inland Empire Regional
Los Angeles Regional
List
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Orange County Regional
List
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San Diego Regional
List
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Santa Barbara Regional
Division C
Inland Empire Regional
List
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Los Angeles Regional
List
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Orange County Regional
List
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San Diego Regional
List
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Santa Barbara Regional
External Links
Tournaments of Southern California | ||||||||||||||||||
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Related: Northern California | ||||||||||||||||||
| Invitationals |
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| Regionals |
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| States | ||||||||||||||||||
| Nationals | ||||||||||||||||||
State Website: http://www.socalstatescioly.org/ | ||||||||||||||||||