LOWER LAKE — Lower Lake High School took first place in the county-wide Academic Decathlon on Saturday. Next stop: state finals.
LLHS scored 32,875 out of 60,000 possible points, cinching a first-time win over Upper Lake High School, the county Academic Decathlon winner for eight years prior.
Senior Emily Riggs won eight medals, leading overall by only one over her school”s team captain Kate Lyons.
“I”m very happy about winning my own medals, but more than that I”m glad that we”ve come in first place in the competition overall,” said Riggs. She said there had been a respectful rivalry between Upper Lake and Lower Lake high schools for several years.
“We had to work very hard to beat them, and it”s a very big deal for us,” said Lyons.
Coach Nancy Harby said the participants chose her class as an elective that also counts as an A-G college readiness requirement.
Each team member competes in 10 decathlon events, including mathematics, economics, music, art, language and literature and science. Students also give prepared and impromptu speeches, write an essay on a given topic and are interviewed by a panel of judges, according to the Lake County Office of Education.
The final event is the Super Quiz, which Harby described as a Jeopardy-type event in which students are questioned by the audience.
“We started in the spring of last year,” she said, “and intensified our efforts over the last semester.” Harby said team members developed a camaraderie in their preparations, even staying after school in a final push before the big event.
Harby won three out of four coach medals, a gold for her team”s overall win, and both silver and gold in the Super Quiz. LLHS” nine-member team will go on to represent Lake County in the California Academic Decathlon State Finals March 15-18 at the LAX Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles.
This won”t be the first time LLHS will have competed at state, however. Lyons was on the team last year when it came in second in the county competition, but was invited to compete in the state finals because of its high score.
“It”s really neat that we had the opportunity of attending state last year, because we have some experience and are prepared. And we”re even more exited because we know what it”s like. We had a lot of fun last year,” said Lyons.
Jared Focose, a LLHS senior and the school”s top scoring varsity team member, came in third overall on his team. He, too, went to state last year when LLHS came in second in the county decathlon.
Based on county population, LLHS falls in division three of the state finals; last year the school representing Marysville County took home the gold.
When asked what would be important to for the team to take to state finals from their previous experience, Focose said, “We try to keep a good reputation and keep Lake County looking good. We”re very respectful and we”re really good sports.”
Middletown and Clear Lake high schools also participated in the county decathlon, each with one team; Clear Lake took third place overall. Lower Lake and Upper Lake each have two teams in the decathlon and classes dedicated to preparing for the yearly event.
“As a community, we should be proud of the students that are competing,” said Superintendent of Schools Dave Geck. “From my standpoint, this is one of the great opportunities in the county to recognize students on an academic level. It”s a testimony to their hard work.”
Recognizing each student, medal by medal
Music Category: -Bronze: Emily Riggs Lower Lake High School Team 1 -Silver: Robin Grayhorse Upper Lake High School Team 1 -Gold: Omega Letana Upper Lake High School Team 1
Essay Category: -Bronze: Emily Riggs Lower Lake High School Team 1 -Silver: Kelsey Reeves Middletown High School -Gold: Kate Lyons Lower Lake High School Team 1
Arts Category: -Bronze: Kate Lyons Lower Lake High School Team 1 -Silver: Jared Focose Lower Lake High School Team 1; Emily Riggs Lower Lake High School Team 1 -Gold: Omega Letana Upper Lake High school Team 1
Interview Category: -Bronze: Josh Salazar Lower Lake High School Team 2 -Silver: Kate Lyons Lower Lake High School Team 1 -Gold: Emily Riggs Lower Lake High Shool Team 1; Kimberly Lajcik Clear Lake High School
Mathematics Category: -Bronze: Anna Lopez Middletown High School; Robin McCutcheon Upper Lake High School Team 1 -Silver: Kyle Coleman Upper Lake High School Team 1 -Gold: Omega Letana Upper Lake High School Team 1
Economics Category: -Bronze: Kate Lyons Lower Lake High School Team 1 -Silver: Robert Pyle Upper Lake High School Team 1 -Gold: Kelsey Reeves Middletown High School
Social Science Category: -Bronze: Anthea Tuley Lower Lake High School Team 1 -Silver: Kate Lyons Lower Lake High School Team 1 -Gold: Emily Riggs Lower Lake High School Team 1
Speech/Impromptu Category: -Bronze: Quinn Womachka Upper Lake High School Team 1; Omega Letana Upper Lake High School Team 1 -Silver: Robert Pyle Upper Lake High School Team 1 -Gold: Emily Riggs Lower Lake High School Team 1
Overall Varsity Category: -Bronze: Kayla Huff Lower Lake High School Team 1 -Silver: Jared Focose Lower Lake High School Team 1 -Gold: Robert Pyle Upper Lake High School Team 1
Overall Scholastic Category: -Bronze: Robin Grayhorse Upper Lake High School Team 1 -Silver: Anthea Tuley Lower Lake High School Team 1 -Gold: Mark Nelson Clear Lake High School
Highest Scorer at each school: -Clear Lake High School: Kimberly Lajcik, gold -Lower Lake High School: Emily Riggs, gold -Middletown High School: Anna Lopez, gold -Upper Lake High School: Omega Letana, gold
Super Quiz Category (written and relay portion combined) -Silver: Lower Lake High School Team 1 -Gold: Lower Lake High School Team 2
Overall Winning Team: -Silver: Upper Lake High School Team 1 -Gold: Lower Lake High School Team 1
Team participants in the state competition are: Jared Focose, Jamie Walker, Kayla Huff, Manuel Pantoja, Anthea Tuley, Jose Riggs, Kate Lyons, Emily Riggs, Emmalena Illia. Nancy Haby is their coach.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
