Mrs. Jones Message
STEM SPOTLIGHT MESSAGE 4/19/2026
E SPORTS
eSports had another strong week in Playoffs!
Mario Kart won in the round of Sixteen, beating Rocky Mountain High School 2-1. They lost an extremely tight game in the round of Eight to #1 Legend High School 2-1 in an overtime battle.
Rocket League also won their round of Sixteen, beating McClave High School 4-2. They followed that up in the round of Eight, beating Pueblo County High School 4-2. Rocket League lost a hard fought battle to Chaparal in the Semifinals 4-2. This is one round higher than they finished in the Fall. We are very proud of their growth.
Marvel Rivals won in the round of Sixteen, beating American Leadership Academy 3-0. They continued their domination beating Jarvis High School (Provo, Utah) 3-0 in the round of Eight. They followed that up by crushing Thunderridge 3-0 in the Semifinals. The team plays in the Finals on Thursday April 23rd against McCollum High School, San Antonio, TX.
In other major eSports news, the Marvel Rivals team competed in the elite college tournament Rocky Mountain Collegiate Series over the weekend. Eight college teams and three High School teams competed for Colorado bragging rights. STEM finished 4th in the tournament. In the second round, STEM competed against the CSU games. The team took a game off the Rams to which they received very high praise. CSU is considered the best Colorado collegiate Rivals team in NACE (the eSports equivalent to the NCAA).
With three weeks left in the season, Middle School Smash teams took on some very hard opponents and made a great showing!
Smash Gold 6-3 ranked 16/86
Smash Blue 6-3 ranked 17/86
Smash White 3-2 ranked 40/86
Smash Silver 1-6 ranked 65/86
GIRLS GOLF
Girls Golf participated in a varsity tournament at Fox Hollow Golf course on Tuesday and a JV tournament at Emerald Greens Golf course. Results pending….
BOYS VOLLEYBALL
GIRLS SOCCER
Girls Soccer is sitting at 3-5-1 after a tough 0-0 tie at Twin Peaks. The team travels to Nederland on Thursday.
Speech and Debate
STEM Middle School Speech and Debate hosted our first tournament on Friday against 7 other teams and brought 28 of the 84 students. Our students competed in 5 different events, with some double-entering in speech events. We had an impressive showing from all 28 team members!
Original Oratory/Informative: all 12 of our students placed in the top 14 places out of 18 total entries!
1st place: Aadya Inamdar (took 1st in every round, earning the maximum possible speaker points!)
3rd place: Maya Romanova (took 1st place in two rounds, and 2nd place in the other round!)
4th place: Deneth Pallage (took 1st place in one round, and 2nd place in two other rounds!)
5th place: Riya Thangarajan (took 1st place in two rounds!)
6th place: Dana Jandos
7th place: Salma Okanlawon (her first ever time competing in speech! She took 1st place in one round, took 2nd place to Aadya in another round, and earned an impressive 85 out of a possible 90 speaker points throughout the tournament!)
Also placing in the top 14: Mirabelle Lorenzana, Saina Singh, Aishi Bhardwaj, Ksheeraja Podala, Kavin Balachandra, and Pehel Raghuvanshi
Impromptu: we had 6 entries in this relatively new event
3rd place: Ksheeraja Podala (took 1st place in one round and 2nd place to the tournament champion in another round!)
4th place: Aishi Bhardwaj
5th place: Jyosna Nimmagadda
6th place: Rae Penar
7th place: Kavin Balachandra
8th place: Mirabelle Lorenzana
Poetry Interpretation: a brand new event for us this month! We had 3 entries, all of whom double-entered and took ribbons in both of their events.
4th place: Jyosna Nimmagadda (took 1st place in one round and 2nd place to the tournament champion in another round!)
5th place: Rae Penar
6th place: Maya Romanova
Novice Public Forum Debate: we had 2 of the 19 teams.
7th place: Charlie Zhang & Lincoln Treece (2-1; their only loss was to the tournament champion! Most combined speaker points of any team! Charlie earned the maximum possible individual speaker points!)
9th place: Vander Otley & Layla Castaneda (Layla's first debate ever in competition! 2-1 record!)
Varsity Public Forum Debate: we had 5 of the 12 teams.
2nd place: Aarush Prasad & Lakshman Ganesh (3-0; more combined speaker points than the tournament champions!)
3rd place: Ethan Liu & Ryan Liu (2-1; only loss to tournament champions!)
4th place: Faheema Shafeeq & Aarna Varre (2-1; only loss to STEM's Aarush & Lakshman! Most combined speaker points of any team!)
5th place: Michael Jimanov & Ian Comerford (2-1; only loss to tournament champions!)
7th place: Shrey Pant & Anvit Yelgalwar (2-1; only loss to tournament champions!)
Thanks to the many parents and 9 high school speech & debate team members who helped to judge and to ensure the tournament ran smoothly, as well as faculty who came to show their support!
We have one Colorado tournament left on May 1 before we look ahead to the nationals tournament in June. Please congratulate these amazing middle school students when you see them!
Let’s Go Spartans!
Susan Jones
Athletic Director