HOUGHTON – The Michigan Technological University annual Bioathlon just completed its 27th competition Wednesday, and Jeff Lewin doesn’t see any reason why it won’t keep on going.

Lewin, who is laboratory supervisor in the Tech department of biological sciences and organizer of the Bioathlon, said in 1991, a group of Tech professors thought it would be a good idea to have some sort of event for high school students, and what they came up with was the Bioathlon, which is a series of four disciplines for teams made up of four students each.

For the first competition, Lewin said there were 24 schools in the competition, including some from downstate.

“There was some grant money to bring Detroit schools up,” he said.

Now, the competition is made up of students from the western and central Upper Peninsula, with 60 students taking part. The winner Wednesday was Houghton High School.

In the 27 years of the competition, Lewin estimates about 1,500 students have taken part, which pleases him.

“I think that’s great,” he said.

Lewin said the scoring for the competition is from 0 – 100 points for each discipline, which are dissection, forest field identification, molecular biology, and medical laboratory science. Participants can loose points only for not properly cleaning up their work area after each discipline.

For each discipline, Lewin said a maximum of 400 points can be awarded.

“I don’t think anybody’s ever gotten 400,” he said.

Awards were given out for first, second and third place, Lewin said. Each team member received a certificate of participation and a Bioathlon T-shirt. The third place winner was L.L. Wright in Ironwood, second place was Calumet High School, and first place went to Houghton High School.

The Houghton High School team consisted of Andra Campbell, Wonyoung Choi, Ann Desrochers, and Kieran Storer. All are in 10th grade. Choi and Storer were not present for the award ceremony.

Campbell and Desrochers both said they enjoyed the competition, even if they weren’t always certain about an answer.

“I think we were able to logic our way through some of the questions,” Desrochers said.

Campbell said she has an interest in getting into some sort of science for a career.

“I’m interested in forensics (science),” she said.

Desrochers said she doesn’t have an interest in a scientific career, but she enjoys her science classes.

Houghton High School science teacher Lauri Davis said she’s been attending the Bioathlons with students for eight years, and the school has attended all of them.

“This is the first time in 21 years Houghton has won,” she said. “We come every year. It’s a great experience for the kids.”

The awards were handed out by Bruce Seely, dean of the Tech College of Science and Arts, who spoke before.

“By being here, you’ve exhibited an interest in science,” he said.

The biological sciences are in a period of rapid growth, Seely said.

“This is the century of biology,” he said.

Lewin said there is interest in keeping the Bioathlon going, but funding needs to found. Currently, the competition is funded by the Tech Admissions and the Biological Science departments, the Michigan Tech Fund, and some alumni.