Forget track spikes and starting pistols. At Sierra Vista Middle School, the most fiercely contested sport on campus is played with safety goggles, data sheets and college-level textbooks.
This is the competitive world of Science Olympiad, where the Irvine school has quietly built a modern academic dynasty – one that just captured its second consecutive Division B National Championship and its third national title in five years, winning medals in 18 of 23 events.
Think of it as a track meet, but for science. Students work in pairs to compete across 23 events, ranging from building mechanical flight devices to testing complex chemical formulas. Sierra Vista’s national showing follows a victory at the Southern California State Tournament, where the school won 14 of the 23 events to capture its fifth consecutive title
Sierra Vista coach Peter Tierney said the secret to the school’s dominance lies in a winning tradition that breeds high expectations and passes them down year after year, beginning as early as elementary school.
Science Bowl allows middle school teams to carry up to five ninth-grade graduates on the roster. Sierra Vista uses this rule to enlist five veteran captains – this year, Shawn Zhao, Bryan Huang, Emma Chen, Miya Lin and Siyona Arun – who have transitioned to Northwood High School but return to mentor younger students.
“When elementary students see high schoolers and middle schoolers constantly giving back, they realize they aren’t just here to take a few tests for a year and move on,” Tierney says. “It shows that we are all in this together to help each other grow.”
To navigate the college-level material, the preparation requires in-person practices twice a week, Friday small-group meetings and two evenings of online Zoom sessions dedicated to dissecting test results.
While the academic growth is clear, the captains agree that the ultimate reward remains passing on the school tradition to the next generation.
“Especially being a captain, watching all these younger students gain their passion for science and put so much effort into their events and watching them grow and being able to help them in their journey is really rewarding,” Arun says.
