Hershey Middle School

Hershey Middle School
Location	500 Homestead Rd Hershey, PA 17033
State	Pennsylvania
Region	Central Pennsylvania Regional
Map	Loading map...
Information
Member of SO since	1985
Teams	1
Feeds to	Hershey High School
Results History
Best regional	1st (1990, 2004-2009, 2014)
Best state	1st (1985)
Best nationals	16th (1988)

Hershey Middle School is located in Hershey, Pennsylvania. HMS competes in the Central region of Pennsylvania. Hershey Science Olympiad traditionally does very well at regionals, decent at States, and has made it to Nationals once (a very long time ago).

History

Hershey Middle School has a long history that dates back to the very beginning of Science Olympiad in Pennsylvania.

20th Century

Hershey was the champion of the first-ever Pennsylvania Science Olympiad in 1985, earning a spot at the first-ever National Tournament. According to the Lebanon Daily News, their team consisted of 15 ninth-graders. At nationals, they earned 151 points, which would have tied them for third place, but they were excluded from the final placements for unconfirmed reasons. It is suspected that their team makeup of only ninth-graders made them ineligible for placement in the team rankings, but they were still permitted to compete at the tournament.

In 1986 and 1987, due to the graduation of the entire team to Hershey High School, the team did not place as highly and did not make the national tournament. In both of these seasons, the high school team did qualify for nationals, on the strength of Hershey's original core.

In 1988, the first year of regionals in the B Division, Hershey advanced to the state tournament out of the Eastern Regional, though their exact placement is not known. At states, they finished in 2nd place to earn their second appearance at the national tournament. They would go on to finish in 16th place with a score of 54 points (high score wins).

With the inception of the Central Regional in 1989, Hershey quickly became one of the region's top contenders. They finished in 3rd place in their first year, and 1st place in their second year. Although not all of the results throughout the 1990s are known, Hershey would continue to perform well at regionals and earn qualification to the state tournament.

21st Century

Although Hershey has not yet returned to nationals, they have continued their strong results at the regional level, never failing to qualify for the state tournament during the 21st century. They have won seven regional championships during this time, including six consecutive championships from 2004 to 2009. During this winning streak, they finished in the top 10 at states four times, with results from 2007 unknown. Their best placement was fourth place at the 2005 Pennsylvania State Tournament.

In 2013, Hershey attended an invitational tournament for the first time, the Rustin Invitational. They would attend every subsequent year until 2019. Their attendance coincided with a return to the top 10 teams at states, after a brief drought from 2010 to 2014.

In the 2020s, Hershey has seen another surge in results. Although they have not won a regional championship since 2014, they have scored fewer than 100 points for four consecutive years. In 2021, they finished 7th place at states, which was their highest placement since 2009, and they have finished in the top 6 every year since then. This includes a 4th-place finish at the 2023 Pennsylvania State Tournament, matching their best performance since 2000, and a 5th-place finish at the 2024 Pennsylvania State Tournament, which was their first time scoring under 200 points since the "low score wins" system was implemented. They improved even more at the 2025 Pennsylvania State Tournament finishing 4th overall with 152 points, only 46 points behind second-place Harlan Rowe Middle School.

Results Table

Year	Rustin		Regional		State
2000	-		3rd	X	X	X
2001	-		3rd	X	X	X
2002	-		6th	X	34th	559
2003	-		2nd	X	26th	471
2004	-		2nd	X	9th	364
2005	-		1st	X	4th	305
2006	-		1st	92	7th	330
2007	-		1st	68	X	X
2008	-		1st	87	13th	405
2009	-		1st	91	7th	318
2010	-		3rd	121	15th	419
2011	-		2nd	107	20th	457
2012	-		2nd	95	12th	386
2013			2nd	97	22nd	474
2014	17th	414	1st	84	13th	366
2015	21st	492	3rd	130	10th	366
2016	22nd	561	2nd	115	14th	393
2017	14th	355	3rd	110	8th	322
2018	16th	570	2nd	119	10th	327
2019	30th	701	2nd	137	10th	334
2020	-		3rd	152	N/A
2021	-		4th	102	7th	198
2022	-		2nd	94	6th	247
2023	-		2nd	74	4th	204
2024	-		2nd	71	5th	191
2024	-		3rd	68	4th	152

"X" means score or placing is unknown.

Medals at States

• 2009
  • Compute This- 1st
  • Road Scholar- 4th
  • Trajectory- 5th
  • Write It Do It- 4th
• 2010
  • Road Scholar- 3rd
  • Solar System- 1st
  • Trajectory- 3rd