Academic Decathlon wins county competition and heads for state
Miguel Rivera wins a medal.
February 27, 2014
For the fourth consecutive year Tracy High’s Academic Decathlon (AcaDec) team placed first at the San Joaquin County competition at the San Joaquin County Office of Education in Stockton on Jan. 25-Feb.1 .
Members of the team and coach Jorja Rule were proud of the accomplishment and hope to see the same result at the state competition.
“It was really important to win,” Rule said. “It was like I was on pins and needles.”
It was Rule’s first year advising AcaDec, which made the win even more challenging.
“It was quite a challenge because I’m teaching senior English and AcaDec for the first time this year,” Rule said. “I had to learn a lot of new material.”
Rule was also a part of AcaDec when she went to high school, but admits that Tracy High’s team is a lot different.
“In high school a teacher invited me to be a part of the AcaDec team and after hearing what it was about I liked it,” Rule said. “However, the teacher only held two study sessions and did not care about winning.”
The AcaDec team not only placed first, but many members won individual medals as well. Yuvraj Grewal won a gold in economics, math, and interview, a bronze in social science and science. He won first overall honors and the overall competition.
“Going through AcaDec for four years has really been a special experience because I have been in it for so long,” Grewal said. “I try to help everyone else since I have the experience.”
Many other members won medals as well. Miguel Rivera won a gold in art, music, language, economics, social science, and a silver in math and science, he also placed first overall in scholastic.
Eshwar Mohan won a gold in interview and science, a silver in social science, and he placed third overall in varsity.
Amal Thommil received a gold in science, a silver in language, and art, a bronze in social science, and placed first place overall in alternative.
Marjorie Caparas won a gold in music.
Hamza Raniwala won a silver in interview, science, and language, a bronze in math, and art, and placed third overall in honors.
Joshua Abraham received a silver in science and in art, and a bronze in interview.
Pallavi Adapa won a silver in social science and a bronze in language.
Daniel Wirtley won a silver in essay. Kirk Testa received a bronze in science, and art. Joshua Blomgren won a bronze in music.
Abraham, a junior, is in his first year as a starter, making the win extra special.
“It felt great to win because this was my first year as a starter,” Abraham said. “Last year I got to see the team win, so it was really great to keep the tradition of Tracy High going.”
To prepare for county the team had to go through various study techniques which ended up paying off.
“It’s always a challenge to study,” Abraham said. “We went over 10 different subjects and it was tough.”
Grewal talked about how all the starters worked together to prepare for county.
“All the starters tried to help each other by quizzing each other,” Grewal said. “We all gave each other advice.”
The state competition takes place in Sacramento on March 20-23 . The state event is more challenging, making the study techniques more vigorous. The AcaDec team decided that instead of focusing on placing as a team, the members would focus on winning individual medals.
“All the starters are going to focus on their strongest subjects and weakest subjects,” Rule said. “That way they can improve on their weakest subject and hope to score more in their strongest subject.”
