LAKE COUNTY — Nine Upper Lake High School students will make the trip to Sacramento next month to compete in the California Academic Decathlon State Finals. The ULHS team won the county the county-level competition on Saturday, scoring 34,939 out of a possible 60,000 points.
The ULHS academic decathlon team went to the state finals eight years in a row until Lower Lake High School won the county competition in 2007. In addition, teams from Middletown High School and Clear Lake High School competed in the county competition Saturday. The state finals will take place March 7 through 10 at California State University, Sacramento.
“Last year I think our heads got a little too big. We assumed we would win like we”ve always done,” ULHS senior and co-team captain Robert Pyle said. “This year we were determined to prove that we”re still on top, plus it”s our coach”s last year and we wanted to make it meaningful for her.”
Each team member competes in 100 decathlon events, including mathematics, economics, music, art, language, literature and science. Students also give prepared and impromptu speeches, write an essay on a given topic and are interviewed by a panel of three judges, according to the Lake County Office of Education. The final event is the Super Quiz, a Jeopardy-style event where audience members read prepared questions that are picked at random.
“When you look at our division, we”re in contention. We”re in contention for bringing home a trophy,” coach Christina Moore said. Moore has been the academic decathlon coach for 12 years and said the ever-changing team has averaged scores in the upper 30,000s.
“Last year my kids did not score as high as as they normally do ? I”m not pushing Lower Lake down, but when I looked at the scores, this year”s is more average of what we”ve been doing over the years as opposed to last year”s,” Moore said.
Moore”s academic decathlon class gathered around the final scores Monday morning, already sizing up their chances for state gold.
“I hope I do way better, because I”m not happy with my scores, although I”ve stepped it up a lot from last year. The whole team has,” co-team captain Daniella Santana Cazares said. Cazares is a senior at ULHS, and said this will be her second year competing in the academic decathlon, and her first time going to state.
Moore added that last year”s team had a lot of new students who were not yet acclimated to the amount of studying required. “The kids joke about how many books they carry around,” Moore said. Her academic decathlon team stayed at school until 7 p.m. all of last week, Moore said. Pyle said he expects more intensive study in the weeks ahead.
In the eight years prior to last year that she has taken her team to the state finals, Moore said the ULHS team has brought home four trophies. They include three trophies for third place and one for the division championship at the state level in 2002. Last year, Lower Lake High School”s academic decathlon team went on to the state finals with 32,875 points out of a possible 60,000 in the county-level competition. In 2006, ULHS”s team won the county competition with 32,684 points.
Pyle additionally earned bronze in the music category, gold in the essay category, bronze in the arts category, gold in language and literature, silver in the economics, silver in science and gold in the overall varsity category. Robin Grayhorse won gold medals in the categories of music, literature and language, economics and the overall scholastic category. Kyle Coleman won bronze medals in music, mathematics and in the overall honor category. Additionally, Marisa Feliciano Garcia won silver medals in mathematics and in the overall honor category. Daniella Cazares won a bronze in science. Corey Smith won a bronze in music and a silver in the overall varsity category.
For a complete list of medal winners, see the youth page of Friday”s edition of the Record-Bee.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com
