Munster’s Eventful March
Science Olympiad Prepares for State
The Science Olympiad team prepares to compete at the state competition on March 21.
Team captain Haley Kwasniewski, senior, expects the team to compete well since they were very successful last year.
“We will probably win,” Haley said. “Last year we won by the largest margin in Indiana State Science Olympiad. We are predicted to win again.”
Experience stands as one of the team’s greatest advantages this year. They only lost four seniors after last year’s season.
“It (losing only a few seniors) is a good thing,” Haley said. “We usually lose seven or eight. We were able to fill in those gaps. Experience is almost everything in Science Olympiad.”
The team looks to win more than State. Haley and the rest of her team want to qualify for Nationals which is held in Lincoln, Nebraska on May 15.
“We have the top 10 trophy in mind,” Haley said. “If you place first or second then you go to Nationals. We hope to break the top 10.”
Due to past experiences and numerous practices over the same events, Haley expects the team to perform well in all of their events.
“We do the same events every year,” Haley said. “The more you do your events then the easier it becomes.”
Since she is a senior, Haley knows this could be her final competition. She looks to do her best while setting a good example for her younger teammates.
“This is a very special ending for me,” Haley said. “I have been on the varsity team for four years. This is one of the best if not the best thing I have done in high school. Never question yourself, you won’t know until you try. I am really excited to see how we do.”
The Band “Hot” gets ready for Battle of the Bands
Julia Torres, junior and her fellow bandmates prepare to perform at the high school’s annual Battle of the Bands competition this Friday.
“Hot” is the first all-female band to perform at Battle. Julia enjoys the fact that there is a lot of different people and styles competing.
“I think there is a lot of diversity,” Julia said. “All the kids are different.”
“Hot” is comprised of a group of friends who just decided to get together and play music a few years ago. Julia came up with the idea of forming the band. She originally just formed the group to play together by themselves, but this year they decided to compete.
“At the end of my freshman year, I contacted Rachel Bishop (junior),” Julia said. “This year we thought we would have a girl band.”
The group feels confident in their ability to perform in front of people in a competition, according to Julia.
“We feel pretty good,” Julia said. “I think we are all really talented. It will be a fun show. We are really energetic. We will be before we even start playing. We play with a lot of confidence and charisma.”
Although they would like to win, the experience matter most to Julia and she is glad that she can work together with her friends to play music.
“This is a real good experience,” Julia said. “It helps you learn to work with other people. You have to compromise with other band members and use teamwork.”
Julia and the rest of “Hot” hope that Battle of the Bands is just the beginning of their band. They hope to continue playing in the future.
“This is something we want to continue into the summer,” Julia said. “We would like to put some small shows on for our friends. We want to continue because we have a lot of fun.”
Boys’ Basketball advances to Regionals
The Boys’ Basketball team advances to Regionals after coming up with an underdog win against East Chicago on Saturday.
Drew Hackett served as the team’s key to victory by scoring a Sectional record 51 points. Forward Adam Ostoich, senior, and the rest of the team made sure to give Hackett the ball in the second half.
“They started fouling us like crazy,” Ostoich said. “Drew knows how to finish games. We made sure to give him the ball and he ended up making like 27 free throws.”
The team wanted to focus on defense especially since East Chicago has three D-1 players on their team, according to Ostoich.
“We came in wanting their other three players to beat us (not the D-1 players),” Ostoich said. “We executed on defense.”
Ostoich felt motivated when his team was labeled as the underdogs of the tournament. Despite an up and down season, Ostoich believes the team stepped up their game at the right time.
“We don’t blame anyone for thinking that,” Ostoich said. “We struggled this year. We got hot at the right time. When you have the right mindset with the right group of guys then you can achieve anything.”
The team will travel to Michigan City to take on Crown Point this Saturday in the first round of Regionals.
