Cary Academy’s Science Olympiad team had a successful finish to the 2019 NCSO State tournament, held at NC State University this past weekend, placing 3rd in Chem Lab; 8th in Circuit Lab, Geologic Mapping, and Water Quality; and 9th in Experimental Design. The team placed 21 of 50 schools competing from across the state (a fantastic showing for CA competing against schools with field much larger teams). 

Cary Academy’s FRC (varsity) robotics team (#5160) had a fantastic 2^nd tournament, but fell short of qualifying for states. FRC tournaments are two-day affairs. Each team plays in 12 qualification matches which determines their tournament ranking. After those matches, the 8 highest seeds choose two other teams to form a playoff alliance.

The Chargers had a fabulous Saturday: solid driving, a lot of scoring and a record of 7-2 was good enough put us in 8^th position at the close of day 1. Unfortunately, Sunday played out differently. A technical issue and some alliance mistakes led to three losses, dropping the Chargers to a rank of 18. During alliance selections, the 7^th seeded alliance selected the Chargers and our 3 team alliance had the daunting chore of taking on seed #2 with two of the top robots in the tournaments. The Chargers were tasked with playing defense on those high-scoring bots and did CA proud, keep them from scoring well below their average. Unfortunately, it was not enough and our alliance was eliminated in the quarter-finals.

We ended the season just outside of qualifying for States, but with the satisfaction of building a solid, durable robot, capable of scoring and defending with the best of teams.

The Chargers would like to honor and thank our soon-to-be graduates Cameron Fisher, Michael Epperson and Claudia Zimmerman for their hard work and leadership during the years they spent in the CA Robotics Program. A shout out to all the parents for their endless supply of snacks and for the many many ways they helped and supported the team. Finally, the coach’s cup goes to Rachel Atay and Scott Allred who are crucial to the success of the team, as well as in the design and maintenance of the robot. We did CA proud.

– Guest Post by Besty MacDonald, Upper School Design, Programming and Robotics Teacher

At the State Regional Mathematics Contest at Wake Technical Community College, four teams of CA Middle and Upper Schoolers competed against many of the top mathematics students in Wake County, and likely in all of the state. Roughly thirty schools participated in this meet.

Five students earned individual medals for their performances: Bryan Fang (’23), Haitian Huang (’23), Emily Wang (’22), Ruiyang Wu (’24), and Eric Ye (’24).

Bryan and Ruiyang also qualified for the State Mathematics Contest in their respective divisions!

Algebra I team: Maddie Alvarez (’24), Katie Shen (’24), Eric Xie (’24), Jasmine Ye (’24)

Team finish:       8^th place

Geometry team:  Haitian Huang, Nitya Nalamothu (’23), Ruiyang Wu, Eric Ye

Team finish:       4^th place (earned plaque)

Top Individuals:

• Ruiyang Wu (7^th) – State Qualifier
• Eric Ye (11^th) – Medal Winner
• Haitian Huang (12^th) – Medal Winner

Algebra II team:            Bryan Fang, Owen Kadis (’22), William Su (’22), Emily Wang

Team finish:        3^rd place (earned plaque)

Top Individuals: 

• Bryan Fang (9^th) – State Qualifier
• Emily Wang (11^th) – Medal Winner
• Owen Kadis (23^rd)

Comprehensive team:  Tommy Frank (’21), Rishi Goswami (’20), Marvin Koonce (’21), Jay Sagrolikar (’21), Viraj Shah (’19), Victoria Du (’20)

Team finish:        5^th place (earned plaque)

Top Individuals:  

• Tommy Frank (16^th)
• Rishi Goswami (18^th)