State champs! Gallatin team wins state science and engineering contest in Champaign
SPRINGFIELD - Gallatin County High School brought home the gold on Wednesday - winning the Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering state championship at U of I in Champaign for the third straight year.
Around 25 teams and more than 50 individuals competed, representing more than 50 high schools across Illinois. Southern Illinois was represented in the 300 Division by Gallatin County, Sesser-Valier, and Ziegler-Royalton.
Individual medal winners from Gallatin County are Kiley Brown, fourth in Biology, and David Matthews, fifth in Math. This is the third time in the history of Gallatin County High School that a team has won a state championship. Since 1998, when the WYSE competition was created (formerly named JETS), Gallatin County has been represented at the state level 18 years. Gallatin's WYSE team placed 2nd at the state competition in 2013, fourth in 2015, and first in 2016 and 2017.
This year, the Gallatin County WYSE Team also received first at the Regional Competition, hosted by Southeastern Illinois College, and placed first at the Sectional Competition, hosted by Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
The Academic Challenge is an annual competition in which schools test at the regional, sectional and state levels, with teams of 14 members. The competition consists of seven subjects - biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering graphics, English, mathematics, and physics - with each student testing in two subjects.
Test material is drawn from senior level high school and freshman level college curricula.
Students have 40 minutes to complete the multiple-choice tests that vary in length from 30 questions (computer science and mathematics) to 80 questions (English).
Gallatin County's varsity team members are Michaela Springer, Kenna Rife, Dylan Boggs, Nathan Shults, Dylan Garrison, Aaron Walters, David Matthews, Kiley Brown, Madison Raymer, Konner Gross, Abbie Keasler, Kallie Keasler, Blake Seely, and Jayde Pennington.
They are coached by Lindsay Adams and Billyjoe Menard.