A team from Little Rock Central High School took first place in the National Science Bowl regional competition held Jan. 25 at the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith.

The winning team, coached by Summer Vaught, included Avinash Arulmuruga, Sherry Gao, Nathanael Ji, Zen Tang and Kwuang Tang. By winning the regional event at UAFS, Central advances to the national competition, scheduled for April 24-28 in Washington, D.C.

Second and third places went to teams from Southside High School in Fort Smith.

The second place team, which was coached by Josh Adams, consisted of Max Weidman, Zachary Smith, Gabe Smith, Eriq Deaver and Dylan Wright.

The third place team, also coached by Josh Adams, consisted of Tariq Salem, Josh Cormier, Zachary Menz and Timothy Dai.

The eight competing teams were greeted at the start of the competition by Dr. Mark Arant of Muldrow, dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Numerous volunteers from UAFS acted as moderators, timekeepers, scorekeepers and judges.

UAFS faculty volunteers were Austin Boyd and Brandon Hutchinson, both of Alma; Brian Abbott, Sandyha Baviskar, Jim Belcher, Dave McGinnis, Noel Sagullo, Stewart Huang, Paula Abbott, Janet Renwick, Amy Skypala, Daiho Uhm, Christie Alexander and Linus Yu, all of Fort Smith; Jerry West, Greenwood; Chris Knubley and David Mayo of Lavaca; and Jim Christiansen, Jennifer Engelhoven and Margie Reading of Van Buren.

The event was organized by David Burkey and Roberta Parks, both of Fort Smith, with support from UAFS staff members Julie Martin and Jeannie Sutton of Fort Smith, A.J. Spires of Greenwood and Jeana Boster of Van Buren.

The National Science Bowl is organized through the U.S. Department of Energy and is a nationwide academic competition that tests students’ knowledge in all areas of science. The competition began in 1991 to encourage students to excel in mathematics and science and to pursue careers in these fields.