Every Hobbs secondary school participated in a weekend Science Olympiad Regional competition at New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell.
The majority of the Hobbs teams qualifed for the state contest on Feb. 23 at New Mexico Tech in Socorro.
In addition, there were a number of first-place finishers from individual schools.
Hobbs High School finished in third-place overall in the high school division with Jonathon Salgado and Jaqueline Thornell taking first-place in the Write It, Do It contest and Troy White and Jakob Huddleston winning the Fermi Questions category. White and Huddleston also teamed for a second-place finish in Thermodynamics while Esai Rivera and White won second in Designer Genes. Thornell and Salgado also won third in the Fossils contest, Rose Baijense and Courtney Cross were third in Forensics and Miranda Acosta and Esai River were third in Mousetrap Vehicle.
With just seven members (15 are allowed) and competing against three other teams of 10th to 12th graders, the Freshman High School team comprised of only ninth graders finished in fifth-place. Madalyn Dunham and Irick Henry won second place in the Boomilever contest while Annmary Thomas and Alexa Ruiz received a third-place medal in anatomy and physiology. The entire team advanced to state competition.
Houston Middle School sent two teams to the weekend contest and came home with third and fifth-place overall finishes as well as four students who finished in first place in individual competitions. Caitlyn Williams and Peyton Goff won first place in the Rollercoaster contest while Lillian Sloan and Mohammad Sadeghmoghaddam were champions in the Write it Do It competition.
Because only one team can advance to state from each school, Houston’s A team will make the trip to Soccorro for state champion competition.
Thanks to its sixth place finish, Highland students will also be represented in Socorro. James Engan and Kade Bennett won second place in the Thermodynamics contest while Engan teamed with Liam Crombie for a second-place win in heredity.
Heizer Middle School took 13 students to the Roswell contest and placed in 13 events. Rexxa Walag and Julianne Villegas won first-place in the fossil competition.