On Saturday, April 10, Pope John XXIII School finished 11th in a field of 43 academic teams in the “AA” division of the state Science Olympiad, held at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. Because of the school’s excellent showing in last year’s state and regional Science Olympiad meets, Pope John XXIII School was moved up to the “AA” division this year. Usually, Pope John competes in the “A” division and against other smaller middle schools in the state, so the “AA” competition this year was very challenging. Despite this, the Pope John XXIII team earned four awards. Ben Hullinger and Willow Smith won fourth place for the academic event, Road Scholar. John Caproni and Joel Aretha won second place for Model This, a new trial event. Parishioners Eleanor Clark and Bryan Brannon won first place for Battery Buggy! Sophie Gray-Gaillard and Ben Tufano won first place for Junkyard Challenge. Parishioner Rob Colgate also worked on this event, but was unable to compete because he was at the State Spelling Bee.