Tracy High’s Academic Decathlon Division one and Division two teams won first place in their divisions in the San Joaquin County Academic Decathlon competition on Feb. 6, and won the county cup.

“I was extremely proud of my team,” coach Jorja Rule said, “the students worked very hard and they deserved the big win.”

“I could not believe it, we redeemed ourselves since we came in fourth place last year,” senior Pranita Chand said, “It was an amazing feeling seeing our school’s students receiving medals for almost every subject.”

Tracy High competed with 15 other county high schools and broke the high score that has been standing for nearly 35 years. The last time that Tracy High won first place in the Academic Decathlon was two years ago. Last year, Tracy High got third place in the competition. Tracy High has won first place six times in the last ten years.

“The win showed me that I actually knew more than I thought I did, and that gave me more confidence about myself,” senior Rommel Bermejo said.

Senior Hamza Raniwala took top individual honors with the highest overall combined score. Raniwala received the $1000 Walter Rathhaus Award. Junior Amal Thommil was the best overall alternate from Tracy High.

“I wasn’t sure how I would do,” Raniwala said. “I was beyond excited when I saw my score, and I was glad that all of my hard work paid off.”

There were activities that the Division one team, Division two team, and the alternates did together. There were some activities where the Division one and two teams split up because they were starter teams. Divisions are based on grade point average and alternates help in boosting the scores and are the students that compete individually. Honors

“It is always stressful preparing for these competitions,” Raniwala said, “but it was a lot of fun because everyone was working together.”

Decathletes started preparing for the competition at the beginning of the school year. Once students found out that they were going to be starters, they started focusing on the specific subjects. Students were tested on art, economics, literature, mathematics, music, science and social studies.

Rule changed the format of the class to a more student-driven approach this year. Students put lectures together and taught each other new information.

“I gave the students many team-building exercises so that they would feel allegiance to one another and would not want to let each other down,” Rule said.

Gold medals were rewarded to several students from both of Tracy High’s Division one and two teams. Gold medal winners include: Art: Raniwala, Surya Nehra, Ayman Baydoun, and Jashdeep Dhillon. Economics: Raniwala, Rahul Arora, Daniel Wirtley, Seanne Javier, and Jordan manly. Literature: Nehra, Amy Bezek, and Ishmail Abdelwahed. Mathematics: Raniwala. Music: Kayli Masuda, Joshua Blomgren, and Manly. Science: Javier and Manly. Social Studies: Baydoun and Dhillon.

For the overall combined scores, Tracy High school took first place, Middle College High of Lodi took second place, and Manteca High School took third. Tracy High School will compete at the state championship in Sacramento on March 17-20.