Central Community Unit School District 301 has announced that Burlington Central High School students took first place this month at the 2016 Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering regional competition at Elgin Community College.
The WYSE competition is sponsored by the University of Illinois, according to District 301 officials. It is divided into four divisions based on school population. Each student competing is required to take two tests from the category options of: English, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, computer science and engineering graphics.
For two years in a row, the Central High team took first place at the regional competition with a perfect placement score of 500 out of 500, according to Andrea Keil, Central High WYSE coach and mathematics department chair.
The 2016 Central High team will advance to the WYSE sectional competition on Thursday, March 3, at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. The sectional competition is followed by a state competition on Wednesday, April 13, at the University of Illinois Champaign/Urbana.
According to Keil, Central High students have participated in the state competition 16 times. Last year, the team took seventh place at the state competition with a score of 419 out of 500.
The Central High students who earned medals at the 2016 regional WYSE competition were: Wes Metcalfe, first place in English and biology; Colin Guy, first place in math and computer science; Ryan Cilano, first place in biology; Colin Ficher, second place in physics; Ben David, second place in biology and math; Nirali Thakkar, first place in chemistry and second place in computer science; Alec Petersdorf, second place in chemistry; Joe Sherman, first place in engineering graphics and third place in chemistry; Max Freeman, second place in English; Kevin Byrne, second place in physics and third place in English, and Michael DelaCruz, first place in physics and third place in math.
David and Metcalfe were members of the 2015 Central High team. David was one of five team members who competed in the competition downstate.
Denise Moran is a freelance reporter.
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