The Avengers

WASILLA — Mat-Su Career and Technical High School is building a dynasty inside room 1111. Forget sports, this dynasty is built on science. The Career Tech Tigers won regions for the fourth year in a row and now earns the right to compete in the Department of Energy’s National Science Bowl Competition in Washington. D.C., in this April 26-30.

The team compares themselves to Marvel’s Avengers. Junior Charlie Michael plays the role of Thor, naturally talented with lightning speed when it comes to math. Senior Leah Wyzykowski earned her spot by hitting the chemistry books, hard. She is compared to Iron Man, not super-heroic so much by gift but rather by superior by work ethic. Senior Sarah Montalbano dons the red, white, and blue as the team’s Captain America, the rock of the group and local biology wizard. Hulking, yet mild-mannered physics and aeronautics ace Zach Barnes fills out the Hulk role. Senior Jacob Cucinello plays the Hawkeye role, as he is the fifth team member usually called in for the later rounds due to his math expertise.

NSB pits teams of four against one another asking questions about Biology, Physics, Math, Earth and Space Science and Energy. Some questions are multiple choice and some are toss-up questions. Bonus questions are worth more. Charlie is the team captain, tasked with coming up with an answer when no one else has one. Zach, Charlie, and Sarah have been on a team for three years. The team was groomed during their underclassmen years to be the “B” team at Career Tech, but worked their way to the top. Wyzykowski worked her way in as the last member when the team determined they had a weakness in chemistry.

“It’s been my dream to go to nationals for science bowl,” said Wyzykowski.

When the spot opened up on the “A” team, Wyzykowski worked so hard that her score was more than double the combined score of the other applicants.

The dynasty at Career Tech is all about science. This marked the first year in four years that Career Tech did not sweep all of the science extra curricular competitions including Tsunami Bowl and Science Olympiad. This was also the first year in three years that Career Tech did not take each of the top two places at the regional science bowl competition.

However, Nationals is a whole other world. Many of the teams are from large schools who can offer specialists that Career Tech just can’t. When the Career Tech Tigers went to the NSB in 2017, the eventual first and third place teams were among the nine in their bracket. The 2017 team finished better than any Career Tech Team ever had, but going 3-4 in round robin play, they did not make it out of the first round, something they hope to do this year. Out of the 14,000 students who will compete in NSB annually, which is in it’s 27th year of offering by the Department of Energy.

113 Middle and High School teams will descend on D.C. for Nationals. Last year’s winning teams got all-expense paid trips to Alaska, and the top 16 teams, one from each bracket, win $1,000 for their school’s science departments.

Sarah Montalbano was the former team captain that started the lunch room practice tradition. That tradition lives on with Charlie Michael as captain.

“If we don’t work a lot harder then we’re not going to win, so that’s what we did. I think that our biggest strength as a team is that we are able to work together and trust each other to get the right answer,” said Michael.

Donna Carollo teaches Biology at Career Tech and coaches the Career Tech Tigers in Science Bowl. She says most of her work is done for her by the students.

“They get themselves ready. They’re intimidating. This group has taken on lunch time practices because they want to be the best,” said Carollo.

The group also meets for practices after school. They bring out buzzers and one team member reads off questions posted online for the regional competition. Teams of two talk through problems to try to find the right answer as quickly as possible. You don’t have to be a sports star to be cool at Career Tech. Carollo says that the Science Bowl team are the cool kids at Career Tech.

Cucinello is currently scheduled to be the Valedictorian of the Class of 2018.

“I do calculus 1, Jacob does higher levels of math like calculus 2 and 3 and linear algebra which is beyond the scope of what I dream to know,” said Michael.

Each team member specializes in one area, but the team represents four out of the top six highest ranked students at the school. Cucinello also captained the Computer Science 50 team that won, the only team that got all eight questions correct. Jacob is also the parliamentarian for the Career Tech Student Government Executive Board. Wyzykowski has her visual art displayed throughout the school and rom 1111. Leah is the secretary of their chapter of Alaska Youth for Environmental Action and Student Government and designed the jerseys the team wears into competitions. Zach plans to study aerospace engineering and work for SpaceX, that is, if he does not become an astronaut, which is his preference.

Sarah Montalbano holds a state office for the Health Occupation Students of Alaska and is helping to plan a state conference for that in the spring. Along with competing in the other science extracurriculars, she is an accomplished violinist and has students of her own. Charlie Michael is the Student Advisory Board Representative on the MSBSD and also the Student Representative on the State Board of Education and Early Development, which earned him a seat on the Alaska Association of Student Governments Executive Board, along with being president of the local AYEA chapter. While he also made the All-State Band as a saxophonist, he recognizes Sarah as the superior musician.

When these students take the stage for the National Science Bowl in Washington. D.C., this spring, they will be continuing the dynasty of science that lives at Career Tech.