Mount Nittany Middle School
| Mount Nittany Middle School | |
|---|---|
| State |  Pennsylvania
|
| Map | |
| Information | |
| Member of SO since | 2009 |
| Teams | 1 |
| Feeds to | State College Area High School |
| School District | State College Area School District |
| Results History | |
| Best regional | 2nd (2011) |
| Best state | 6th (2011) |
| Best nationals | Never qualified |
Mount Nittany Middle School is a middle school located in State College, Pennsylvania. It is one of two middle schools located in State College, the other being Park Forest Middle School, their cross-city opponents and long-standing rivals. Both of these middle schools feed into State College Area High School.
Mount Nittany has not been to a national competition (though their predecessor school had qualified for nationals several times), and does not currently attend any invitationals. Since 2025, they have competed in the Northwest Pennsylvania Regional, which they also did from 2009 to 2011, but historically they have most frequently competed in the Central Pennsylvania Regional. They also competed in the Northeast Pennsylvania Regional in 2012, from 2014-2016, and from 2022-2024, and the Central East Pennsylvania Regional in 2013.
Etymology
Mount Nittany Middle School is named after the nearby mountain, Mount Nittany.
History
School Origins
Mount Nittany Middle School was founded in 1995, to address rising enrollment in State College Area School District. They served grades 6 through 8. Prior to 1995, there was one junior high school in State College called State College Junior High School serving grades 7 through 9, and was coming off a national championship at the 1994 national tournament. Rather than be moved to a middle school, ninth graders were instead moved to State College Area High School. Since all ninth graders were attending the same school, they were permitted to continue competing as a single team, and continued to earn significant success, placing first at states every year until 1999 and winning a second national championship in 1995. To this day, they are the only national champions Pennsylvania has had in Division B.
State College Junior High School's coach, Mark Hohnadel, taught science at Mount Nittany until his retirement in 2013.
School Split
When State College Middle School split into two schools, the old building was turned into Park Forest Middle School and a new building was built for Mount Nittany. However, neither school would be represented by a Science Olympiad team until 2000, when State College Junior High stopped competing. Park Forest began competing at this time, finishing first at regionals in their first three years of competition. However, Mount Nittany would not start competing until 2009.
Even though Mount Nittany did not reach the level of national prominence that the old school had, it still achieved success within the state of Pennsylvania, reaching a place of 6th at states in 2011. They have not qualified for states since 2012.
Results Table
| Year | Regionals | States |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 * | - | |
| 2010 * | 5th (166) | 23rd (452) |
| 2011 * | 2nd (100) | 6th (296) |
| 2012 # | 5th (175) | 15th (418) |
| 2013 + | 7th (195) | - |
| 2014 # | 10th (271) | - |
| 2015 # | 16th (386) | - |
| 2016 # | 9th (243) | - |
| 2017 | 9th (230) | - |
| 2018 | 14th (340) | - |
| 2019 | 17th (381) | - |
| 2020 | 19th (376) | - |
| 2021 | Did Not Compete | |
| 2022 # | 14th (343) | - |
| 2023 # | 13th (288) | - |
| 2024 # | 14th (290) | - |
| 2025 * | 6th (165) | - |
- * - Team competed in Northwest Pennsylvania this year.
- # - Team competed in Northeast Pennsylvania this year.
- + - Team competed in Central East Pennsylvania this year.
Event Placings
This table shows events in which we placed 5th or higher at regionals or states in 2010.
| Event | Regionals | States |
|---|---|---|
| Anatomy | 1 | 6 |
| Battery Buggy | 5 | 26 |
| Can't Judge a Powder | 5 | 32 |
| Compute This | 1 | 4 |
| Ecology | 5 | 10 |
| Elevated Bridge | 1 | 12 |
| Fossils | 1 | 5 |
| Junkyard Challenge | 3 | 7 |
| Ornithology | 3 | 8 |
| Road Scholar | 1 | 2 |
This table shows events in which we medaled in at regionals or states in 2011.
| Event | Regionals | States |
|---|---|---|
| Anatomy | 1 | 13 |
| Awesome Aquifers | 2 | 24 |
| Can't Judge a Powder | 5 | 5 |
| Compute This | 2 | 33 |
| Crime Busters | 12 | 4 |
| Dynamic Planet | 1 | 2 |
| Ecology | 1 | 5 |
| Experimental Design | 1 | 2 |
| Fossils | 1 | 1 |
| Meteorology | 4 | 10 |
| Microbe Mission | 1 | 2 |
| Optics | 1 | 14 |
| Ornithology | 1 | 1 |
| Road Scholar | 1 | 8 |
| Shock Value | 2 | 2 |