Hopkinton Middle School students who competed in the state Science Olympiad pose for a group photo.

A team from Hopkinton Middle School participated in the state Science Olympiad on March 8 at Assumption University in Worcester, marking its second appearance in the competition. HMS competed in 17 of the 22 events — including anatomy, crime busters, disease detectives, ecology, entomology, experimental design, fossils, microbe mission and reach for the stars — and secured nine awards.

The team, formed after a school-wide tryout, was comprised of 15 students: eighth graders Catherine Medich, Lindsay Xie, Preesha Panchamia, Rian Sebastian, Srishty Thakkalapally and Tanay Palkar; seventh graders Aarith Nakul, Advaith Gundu, Ava Koerner, Diya Kutralnathan, Emily Cao, Jenil Mehta and Pranav Vijaykumar; and sixth graders Anaghashree Nandiraju, Ezra Vanguri and Pranav Vijaykumar.

HMS science teacher Kerry Genova-Thronton helped put together the team, which was mentored by Hopkinton High School freshmen Anushree Nandiraju and Clara Vanguri (who participated in the middle school Science Olympiad last year).

HMS award winners show off their ribbons.