North Carolina

**North Carolina**
North Carolina
	; State flag
General Information
Member of SO since	1985
Total teams	484 ( 0.207039% 2024 to 2025)
Division B Champion	Piedmont IB Middle School
Division C Champion	North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics
State Tournament Location	North Carolina State University, Raleigh
Date	April 25-26, 2025
Website	ncscienceolympiad.ncsu.edu

North Carolina is one of the largest state organizations in the nation, with approximately 600 teams between Division B and Division C (before 2020) and approximately 200-300 Division A teams. It ran a version of Science Olympiad in the 1970s, which partially inspired the modern incarnation originating in Michigan. Historically, teams from North Carolina that compete at nationals have done well, placing as high as 2nd place in Division B and 5th place in Division C.

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.

Season	Division B					Division C
	Champion		Runner-Up		Third Place	Champion		Runner-Up		Third Place
	Team	Nats Place	Team	Nats Place	Team	Team	Nats Place	Team	Nats Place	Team
1985	-	-	-	-		Page High School	5th	-	-
1986	-	-	-	-		North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics	12th	Northeast Guilford High School	26th
1987	Drexel Junior High School	11th	West Rowan Junior High School	26th		Chapel Hill High School	19th (tied)	North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics [1]	n/a
1988	Drexel Junior High School	12th				Chapel Hill High School	21st	North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics	39th
1989	Drexel Junior High School	14th				Chapel Hill High School	28th
1990	Nash Central Middle School	34th		-		Page High School	11th	Chapel Hill High School	47th
1991	Drexel Junior High School	17th	Liberty Junior High School	35th		North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics	19th
1992	Liberty Junior High School	7th	Our Lady of Lourdes Middle School	31st		North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics	18th	Chapel Hill High School	21st
1993	Hillcrest Junior High School	33rd	Our Lady of Lourdes Middle School	36th		North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics	18th	Garner Senior High School	25th
1994	Our Lady of Lourdes Middle School	21st	Greene County Middle School	26th		North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics	3rd	Garner Senior High School	29th
1995	Arendell Parrott Academy	13th	Our Lady of Lourdes Middle School	42nd		Chapel Hill High School	19th	North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics	12th
1996	Arendell Parrott Academy	27th	Our Lady of Lourdes Middle School	47th		North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics [2]	7th	Chapel Hill High School	28th
1997	Arendell Parrott Academy	14th	Mendenhall Middle School	29th		Chapel Hill High School		John T. Hoggard High School
1998	Arendell Parrott Academy	10th	Our Lady of Lourdes Middle School	38th		Chapel Hill High School	25th	John T. Hoggard High School	40th
1999	Arendell Parrott Academy	5th	Toisnot Middle School	31st		William G. Enloe High School	26th	John T. Hoggard High School	39th
2000	Arendell Parrott Academy	3rd	R. Max Abbott Academy	29th		William G. Enloe High School	25th	John T. Hoggard High School	37th
2001	Arendell Parrott Academy	2nd	Davidson IB Middle School	44th		Grimsley High School	23rd	Southeast Raleigh High School	40th
2002	Arendell Parrott Academy	5th	Seventy-First Middle School	32nd		Grimsley High School	34th	Durham Academy	35th
2003	Arendell Parrott Academy	14th	Seventy-First Middle School	37th		Washington High School	30th	Durham Academy	32nd
2004	Arendell Parrott Academy	16th	Davidson IB Middle School	9th		Raleigh Charter High School	30th	Durham Academy	31st
2005	Davidson IB Middle School	11th	Jay M. Robinson Middle School	38th		Washington High School	34th	Raleigh Charter High School	26th
2006	Davidson IB Middle School	13th	Arendell Parrott Academy	26th		Washington High School	36th	East Chapel Hill High School	24th
2007	Jay M. Robinson Middle School	2nd	Arendell Parrott Academy	26th		Raleigh Charter High School	26th	Washington High School	23rd
2008	Jay M. Robinson Middle School	16th	Davidson IB Middle School	13th		North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics	23rd	Raleigh Charter High School	12th
2009	Jay M. Robinson Middle School (136.5)	21st	Davidson IB Middle School (215.5)	24th		North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (189)	18th	Raleigh Charter High School (244)	11th
2010	Jay M. Robinson Middle School	29th	Arendell Parrott Academy	17th		Raleigh Charter High School	15th	North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics	19th
2011	Arendell Parrott Academy	28th	Piedmont IB Middle School	31st		North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics	17th	Raleigh Charter High School	20th
2012	Piedmont IB Middle School (204)	20th	Jay M. Robinson Middle School (216)	35th		North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (100)	21st	William G. Enloe High School (111)	15th
2013	Fred J. Carnage Middle School (141)	28th	Piedmont IB Middle School (146)	23rd		Raleigh Charter High School (147)	21st	William G. Enloe High School (170)	23rd
2014	Piedmont IB Middle School (96)	9th	Jay M. Robinson Middle School (225)	23rd		William G. Enloe High School (131)	18th	Raleigh Charter High School (132)	30th
2015	Piedmont IB Middle School (57)	4th	J.M. Alexander Middle School (145)	28th	Fred J. Carnage Middle School (217)	William G. Enloe High School (202)	20th	North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (206)	28th	Raleigh Charter High School (282)
2016	Piedmont IB Middle School (138)	13th	Fred J. Carnage Middle School (226)	22nd	Jay M. Robinson Middle School (230)	William G. Enloe High School (224)	31st	Raleigh Charter High School (263)	38th	East Chapel Hill High School (296)
2017	Piedmont IB Middle School (106)	7th	Fred J. Carnage Middle School (195)	27th	Jay M. Robinson Middle School (223)	North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (186)	32nd	William G. Enloe High School (196)	26th	North Mecklenburg High School (237)
2018	Piedmont IB Middle School (146)	6th	Fred J. Carnage Middle School (194)	27th	Wilmington Academy of Arts & Sciences (245)	William G. Enloe High School (86)	10th	Raleigh Charter High School (222)	38th	North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (247)
2019	Piedmont IB Middle School (102)	26th	Wilmington Academy of Arts & Sciences (168)	25th	Jay M. Robinson Middle School (194)	North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (143)	26th	William G. Enloe High School (144)	13th	Raleigh Charter High School (221)
2020	Cancelled due to the 2019-20 Coronavirus outbreak
2021	Piedmont IB Middle School (95)	8th	Fred J. Carnage Middle School (125)	24th	Jay M. Robinson Middle School (158)	William G. Enloe High School (62)	8th	North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (102)	17th	Green Hope High School (206)
2022	Fred J. Carnage Middle School (160)	17th	Wilmington Academy of Arts & Sciences (215)	37th	Piedmont IB Middle School (220)	North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (133)	15th	William G. Enloe High School (143)	7th	Green Hope High School (158)
2023	Piedmont IB Middle School (148)	22nd	Fred J. Carnage Middle School (181)	29th	Davis Drive Middle School (199)	William G. Enloe High School (88)	10th	North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (169)	18th	Raleigh Charter High School (202)
2024	Jay M. Robinson Middle School (101)	22nd	Piedmont IB Middle School (106)	18th	Alston Ridge Middle School (207)	William G. Enloe High School (96)	16th	North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (122)	31st	Raleigh Charter High School (163)
2025	Piedmont IB Middle School (116)	22nd	Fred J. Carnage Middle School (140)	25th	Jay M. Robinson Middle School (161)	North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (92)	28th	William G. Enloe High School (169)	17th	Ardrey Kell High School (204)

Format

North Carolina runs an open regional system, where teams may register for any regional tournament in the state. North Carolina typically runs an altered event slate at the state tournament and a reduced version of that slate at regional tournaments, with some of the national events replaced with various other events. Relatedly, North Carolina used to run a special "National Ready Regional" for the top teams from the prior year, which uses the National slate of events and automatically awards state bids to the participating teams. North Carolina has not run the National Ready Regional since 2023. North Carolina separates a single Varsity team per school from the remaining JV teams at regional tournaments (excepting regionals with small numbers of JV teams registered) - each group is ranked separately, and the Varsity rankings are used to determine state bids. North Carolina runs a regional event winner bid system, "First Place Overall Winners", which qualifies the regional event champions (accounted overall between both the Varsity and JV groups, hence the "Overall" in the program name) from schools which did not qualify for the state tournament to compete in that specific event at the state tournament, eligible for medals but not accounted for in determining team rankings.

Competitions

Name	Type	Date	Division	Format
NC State University Invitational	Invitational	2026-01-31	B	In-person
UNC Chapel Hill Invitational	Invitational	2026-02-21	C	In-person
Raleigh Regional	Regional	2026-01-31	B/C	In-person
Asheville Regional	Regional	2026-02-21	B/C	In-person
Chatham Regional	Regional	2026-01-31	B/C	In-person
Greensboro Regional	Regional	2026-02-21	B/C	In-person
Durham Regional	Regional	2026-02-28	B/C	In-person
East Carolina Regional	Regional	2026-02-28	B/C	In-person
Fayetteville Regional	Regional	2026-03-07	B/C	In-person
Hickory Regional	Regional	2026-03-14	B/C	In-person
Wilmington Regional	Regional	2026-03-14	B/C	In-person
Charlotte Regional	Regional	2026-03-21	B/C	In-person
Rocky Mount Regional	Regional	2026-03-21	B/C	In-person
2026 North Carolina State Tournament	State	2026-04-18	B/C	In-person

There are 14 regions in North Carolina. All regions except for Laurinburg and Cullowhee host competitions for divisions B and C. Laurinburg and Cullowhee only host Division B. Over 14,000 students participated in NCSO activities in 2014, and 18,000 in 2018.

Previous Invitational Tournaments and Dates

O'Neal Invitational- Division B

2016 - December 12th, 2015

2017 - December 10th, 2016

2018 - December 9th, 2017

2019 - December 8th, 2018

2020 - December 14th, 2019

Science Olympiad Showcase at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences - Division B/C

2018 - January 20th, 2018

2019 - January 12th, 2019

2020 - January 11th, 2020

Duke Invitational - Division C

2019 - January 19th, 2019

2020 - January 18th, 2020

Piedmont IB Middle School Invitational - Division B

2019 - January 26th, 2019

2020 - January 11th, 2020

CPCC Invitational - Division B

2014 - January 11th, 2014

2015 - January 10th, 2015

2016 - January 9th, 2016

2017 - January 14th, 2017

2018 - January 6th, 2018

Regional Competitions

See also: Regions of North Carolina

Past Regional Tournaments

All regional tournaments in the 2020-21 season will be held simultaneously online across two days, February 20 and March 6. Approximately half of events will occur on February 20, and another half will occur on March 6. There will be six reorganized regional tournaments (Charlotte, Northeast, Raleigh, Southeast, Triad, and West) run through the Mini SO format and one statewide Satellite tournament that teams may opt to participate in instead of their regular regional tournament.

Pre-2021 Regions:

Region	Counties Served	Division	Location
Asheville	Avery, Buncombe, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain, Transylvania, Yancey	B & C	UNC Asheville
Charlotte	Cabarrus, Mecklenburg, Union, Rowan	B & C	UNC Charlotte
Cullowhee	Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Macon, Swain	B	Western Carolina University
Durham	Durham	B & C	Riverside High School
Fayetteville	Anson, Cumberland, Hoke, Montgomery, Richmond, Robeson, Scotland, Stanley	B & C	Fayetteville Tech Community College
Greensboro	Alamance, Caswell, Guilford, Orange, Person, Randolph, Rockingham	B & C	UNC Greensboro
Greenville	Beaufort, Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Hertford, Hyde, Martin, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Pitt, Tyrell, Washington, Edgecombe, Halifax, Nash, Northampton	B & C	East Carolina University
Hickory	Alexander, Ashe, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Cleveland, Gaston, Lincoln, Watauga	B & C	Catawba Valley Community College
Kinston	Carteret, Craven, Duplin, Green, Jones, Lenoir, Onslow, Pamlico, Sampson, Wayne, Wilson	B & C	Lenoir Community College
Laurinburg	Anson, Hoke, Montgomery, Richmond, Robeson, Scotland, Stanley	B	St. Andrews University
Raleigh	Granville, Vance, Wake, Franklin, Warren	B & C	Southeast Raleigh High School
Southern Wake	Chatham, Harnett, Johnston, Lee, Wake (south), Northern Cumberland	B & C	South Garner High School
Wilmington	Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover, Pender	B & C	UNC Wilmington
Winston-Salem	Alleghany, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Iredell, Stokes, Surry, Wilkes, Yadkin	B & C	Wake Forest University

National Ready

In the past, North Carolina offered an invitation to compete in their National Ready Regional tournament for the top 10 teams at the previous year's state tournament. Teams that chose to compete in the National Ready Regional forego their regional tournament and automatically receive a bid to the current season's state tournament. North Carolina has not run the National Ready Regional since the 2023 season.

State Competition

North Carolina State University- April 21-22, 2023

Previous State Tournament Dates

April 5-6, 2003
April 23-24, 2004
April 15-16, 2005
April 7-8, 2006
April 20-21, 2007
April 4-5, 2008
April 24-25, 2009
April 23-24, 2010
April 29-30, 2011
April 27-28, 2012
April 26-27, 2013
April 25-26, 2014
April 24-25, 2015
April 22-23, 2016
April 21-22, 2017
April 20-21, 2018
April 26-27, 2019
April 24-25, 2020 (cancelled)
April 24, 2021
April 22-23, 2022
April 21-22, 2023

Past State Competition Results

Note: During the 2006 season, the state office implemented the First Place Overall Winner (FPOW) policy, which allows individuals to advance to the state tournament if they receive first place overall in an event at the regional level AND their team does not advance to the state tournament.

Division B

2021 - With and Without FPOWs

2022 - With and Without FPOWs

Division C

2021 - With and Without FPOWs

2022 - With and Without FPOWs

Events

North Carolina frequently runs an altered event slate at its tournaments. Below is the updated information for the 2025-2026 season.

Division B

Hovercraft, Potions and Poisons, Mission Possible, Experimental Design, and Write It Do It will not be run at regional tournaments for the 2026 season.

Division C

Hovercraft, Bungee Drop, Robot Tour, Experimental Design, and Engineering CAD will not be run at regional tournaments for the 2026 season.

Previous Event Changes

2011-2012

Division B

Awesome Aquifers was replaced with Heredity.

Crime Busters received altered NC rules.

Compute This replaced with Metric Mastery.

Experimental Design was replaced with altered NC rules.

Keep the Heat replaced with Shock Value.

Optics replaced with Helicopters.

Division C

Experimental Design received altered NC rules.

Forensics received altered NC rules.

Optics received Storm the Castle.

Protein Modeling was replaced with Food Science.

Robot Arm was replaced with Bottle Rocket.

Technical Problem Solving was replaced with Designer Genes.

Thermodynamics was replaced with Shock Value.

2014-2015

Division B

Can't Judge a Powder was replaced with It Matters!.

Robo Cross was replaced with Duct Tape Challenge.

Crime Busters received altered NC rules.

Experimental Design received altered NC rules.

Division C

Bungee Drop was replaced with Egg-O-Naut.

It's About Time was replaced with Crave the Wave.

Protein Modeling was replaced with It Matters!.

Technical Problem Solving was replaced with Duct Tape Challenge.

2015-2016

Division B

Experimental Design was replaced with Duct Tape Challenge.

Division C

Experimental Design was replaced with Duct Tape Challenge.

Game On was replaced with Bottle Rocket.

Protein Modeling was replaced with Food Science.

Robot Arm was replaced with Amazing Mechatronics.

2016-2017

Division B

Duct Tape Challenge was added as an NC-only event.

Division C

Duct Tape Challenge was added as an NC-only event.

Game On was replaced with Bottle Rocket.

Hydrogeology was replaced with Codebusters.

Robot Arm was replaced with Amazing Mechatronics.

2017-2018

Division B

Experimental Design was not being run at regionals, only at states.

As of the 2018 season, Duct Tape Challenge was an official event for Division B, but was run as a trial event for Division C at select tournaments. This event replaced Mystery Architecture.

Amazing Mechatronics was a trial event.

Ping Pong Parachute was an official North Carolina event.

Division C

Duct Tape Challenge was formerly a NC-only event, but this year it is a trial event.

Game On replaced with Amazing Mechatronics.

Fermi Questions replaced with Code Busters.

Experimental Design will only run at the state tournament.

Ping Pong Parachute will run at regionals and state.

2018-2019

Division B

Duct Tape Challenge and Amazing Mechatronics were run as Division B events.

Game On and Mystery Architecture were not run at the regional level.

Experimental Design was only run at the state tournament.

Ping Pong Parachute was an official event.

Division C

Experimental Design was only run at the state tournament.

Ping Pong Parachute was an official event.

2019-2020

Division B

Codebusters ran as a Division B trial event.

Division C

Division C did not receive any changes specific to North Carolina.

2020-2021

Division B

Digital Structures replaced Boomilever.

Codebusters and Picture This were official events.

Elastic Launched Glider and Ping Pong Parachute were not run.

Fast Facts and Mystery Architecture were run as trial events.

Mission Possible was designated a trial event.

Division C

Digital Structures replaced Boomilever.

Picture This was an official event.

Detector Building, Wright Stuff, and Ping Pong Parachute were not run.

Bottle Rocket, Fast Facts, and Mystery Architecture were run as trial events.

2024-2025

Division B

Ecology, Optics, Mission Possible, Experimental Design, and Write It Do It will not be run at regional tournaments for the 2025 season.

Division C

Ecology, Optics, Robot Tour, Experimental Design, and Write It Do It will not be run at regional tournaments for the 2025 season.

Teams

This list includes teams that were active in the 2018 season as well as teams that previously participated in those regions. Inactive teams are still listed in the case that a school returns to Science Olympiad and to preserve their memory. For lists of active participants only, see each regional page.