Call it a dynasty — the Barrington High School Science Olympiad team recently won its 12th consecutive state title. 

The Barrington students medaled in 12 out of the 15 events at the Rhode Island State Science Olympiad Competition earlier this spring, and earned an invitation to the Science Olympiad Nationals at Caltech; the competition was held virtually. 

At the state competition, Barrington High School students won eight gold medals (astronomy, bridges, chem lab, disease detectives, gravity vehicle, remote sensing, rocks and minerals, and Wright stuff) and four silver medals (dynamic planet, green generation, ornithology, and trajectory).

Barrington High School coaches Sonalya Jayasuriya and Laura Donegan said the school’s ongoing success can be traced to a number of different factors. 

“It really helps that we prepare by competing in different invitationals,” Jayasuriya said. “It is also true that we have some really brilliant kids who are genuinely interested in science and the content in which they are competing. They have the kind of enthusiasm you cannot teach but comes from within because they love learning.”

The coach said that most events in the Science Olympiad require students to learn information that is often not covered in classes. 

“All of that is sourced and studied by the kids independently,” Jayasuriya said. “I think most of them also have a pretty healthy sense of competition but we (Laura and I) try to make sure the message they receive from us is that the Science Olympiad club, first and foremost, is a place for fun and a place of acceptance for everyone with an interest in science. I think that helps to reduce any stress they may feel competing. Our main goal in the next few years is to try our best to increase our ranking nationally.”

At this year’s National Science Olympiad Tournament, Barrington finished in 41st place, out of 60 teams from across the country. Barrington’s team was paced by the students who competed in the gravity vehicle event and in bridge. BHS finished 10th in gravity vehicle and 12th in bridge. 

“This year's team is really strong but honestly I could say that every year,” Jayasuriya said. “They are very enthusiastic about their events. We have some really dedicated builders this year. For example, we have Dawen Cheng and Yiming Xiong who have succeeded in winning gold for Bridges in a very long time (at local competitions). They placed 12th out of 247 at the National Invitational and sixth out of 77 at MIT. We historically have not done well in that event at the state competition so it was great that they did so well.”

Barrington finished strong in a handful of other events at the national competition: 19th in Wifi lab; 22nd in Wright Stuff; 24th in detector building; and 25th in CodeBusters.

A team from Mason High School in Mason, Ohio won the top spot overall at nationals.