Seniors Cheng Luo and Natsuki Nakamura look over some of the results from the WYSE Academic Challenge. Uni won the small-school state title today. Allan Luo is in the background at left. Gargoyle photo by David Porreca (click to enlarge)

CHAMPAIGN — Uni High won the small-school state championship today in the Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering Academic Challenge, which took place at the I Hotel and Conference Center on the University of Illinois south campus.

Competing in the 300 Division, Uni finished with 489.4 points, almost 100 ahead of runner-up Bridgeview Universal School (395.7 points). This is Uni's 11th WYSE state title in 12 years.

The WYSE Academic Challenge is a competition that tests student knowledge in the areas of math, chemistry, English, physics, engineering graphics, biology, and computer science. The Illinois contest is administered by the U of I College of Engineering.

Students who win first place at the state level will receive a $2,000 scholarship if they enroll in the College of Engineering. Students who win second place will receive a $1,000 scholarship if they study engineering at the U of I.

Here are the Uni results from today's contest. Physics teacher James Carrubba is team coach. All students named below are seniors.

• Team Standings (Top Five)
  1st — UNI HIGH, 489.4
  2nd — Bridgeview Universal School, 395.7
  3rd — Alton Marquette Catholic, 389.4
  4th — Effingham St. Anthony, 382.2
  5th — Glen Ellyn College Preparatory School of America, 374

• Math
  1st — Richard Wang
  4th — Jason He

• Chemistry
  2nd — Richard Wang
  5th — Vaishnavi Giridaran and Karolina Kalbarczyk (tie)

• English
  2nd — Rachel Hyman

• Physics
  1st — Daniel Borup and Jeremy Kemball (tie)
  2nd — Brian Wang

• Engineering Graphics
  3rd — Gregory Atherton

• Biology
  2nd — Natsuki Nakamura
  3rd — Vaishnavi Giridaran

• Computer Science
  1st — Brian Wang
  2nd — Jeremy Kemball
  3rd — Gregory Atherton

• Uni Team Members for State Finals
  Gregory Atherton
  Daniel Borup
  Vaishnavi Giridaran
  Jason He
  Rachel Hyman
  Karolina Kalbarczyk
  Jeremy Kemball
  Allan Luo
  Cheng Luo
  Natsuki Nakamura
  Arif Nelson
  Nish Nookala
  Carl Pearson
  Brian Wang
  Richard Wang