CONTACT: David Christy, 916-353-4436, christy@wapa.gov  

A team from Mira Loma High School won the Sacramento-area Science Bowl  today, the second consecutive year for Mira Loma, and will compete at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Science® Bowl in May.

Team members Nathaniel Craig, Michael Taylor, Shirin Zarafshar, Chuck/Hoa Yee, Malini Mahendra and their coach, James Hill, will go to Washington, D.C., to compete in the national event on May 4-7 after defeating 25 other teams in the regional competition at Woodcreek High School, Roseville. Craig, Yee and Mahendra were on the Mira Loma team last year.

The National Science Bowl is an academic competition among teams of high school students. Since the program began in 1991, it has brought together more than 60,000 high school mathematics and science students - as well as their teachers - from across the country. The program is designed to encourage students and their teachers to achieve educational excellence in the sciences. Competing teams are quizzed on scientific topics in biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, earth science, computer science, and mathematics.

The Roseville event was the second of three regional contests in the Western Area Power Administration's Sierra Nevada Region. Enterprise High School won the regional competition held February 10 in Redding. The final event will be March 3 in Modesto.

The regional event is sponsored by Western Area Power Administration's Sierra Nevada Region, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, City of Roseville Electric Department, Roseville Joint Union High School District, Navigant Consulting Inc. and Energy Solutions Co.