Just call it success quadrupled.
Oakdale High School’s Academic Decathlon team has extended its winning streak to four straight years, coming away with the top honors from Saturday’s annual Stanislaus County competition.
“Yes, fourth year in a row,” coach Dee Hawksworth said. “We have three ninth graders on the competing team, so I was a little nervous about how they would do, but everyone worked hard.”
At the conclusion of the 45th annual Stanislaus County Academic Decathlon on Jan. 25, scoring saw Oakdale taking first place honors overall, with Hughson in second place and Modesto High finishing third. Oakdale was also the Super Quiz champion, noted Hawksworth, the squad shining in the only open-to-the-public event of the scholastic competition.
“We beat them by about 3400 points,” the coach added of taking the title over runner-up Hughson.
Hosted by the Stanislaus County Office of Education, this year’s overall topic for the Academic Decathlon was Climate Change. Students competed in Speech, Essay, Interview, Literature, Math, Social Science, Economics, Music, Art, and Science, in addition to the team-focused Super Quiz.
The academic Mustangs went into the competition with the nine competing team members and 20 alternates. The competing team accounts for the scoring; alternates compete for individual honors.
For the OHS competing team, there were some special accomplishments. Earning the top Honors score in the county was senior Joseph Yakligian, who also earned an 8k pin for having a score in the 8000s. He also posted the top overall score for the Oakdale team.
“There have been many years when we have had the top scorer in the county, but it’s always special,” Hawksworth said.
Junior Cristian Cornejo Plascencia was recognized for achieving the top Scholastic score in the competition and earned a 7k pin. Other 7k pin recipients were Brenna Franca and Iyska Rangel.
Honors category competitors have a GPA of 3.80 to 4.00 and for Oakdale included Yakligian, freshman Brenna Franca and junior Iyska Rangel. Scholastic competitors (3.20 to 3.79 GPA) included senior Daniella Guido, Cristian Cornejo Plascencia and senior Nadiah Longoria Gonzalez; and Varsity competitors (3.19 and below) were senior Evelyn Acker, freshman Jason Romayor and freshman Perla Esquivel Plascencia.
In the various categories, first place awards for the Honors competing team included: Joseph Yakligian, Math, Economics, Science and Music; Brenna Franca, Social Science; Iyska Rangel, Speech.
At the Scholastic level, Cristian Cornejo Plascencia took first place in nearly every competing category, including Math, Economics, Science, Literature, Art, Music and Social Science.
Earning a first place award in the Varsity division was Evelyn Acker, in the Music category.
Alternates for Oakdale, who tested in all categories except Speech and Interview, were Austin Speiller, Teagan Malcom, Gradie Wright, Abraham Jeevan, Nicole Vale Padilla, Sophia Jenkins and Border Rath. Also, Kimberly Espinoza Belmonte, Melwin Papsula, Michael Li, Landon Arnold, Emry Nykoluk, Ximena Sanchez, Adamarys Carrillo Alvarez, Damarys Carrillo Alvarez, Arturo Carrillo Alvarez, Jesus Covarrubias, Lincoln Kim, Eurico Silva, and Connor Maddox.
Altogether, the competing team and alternates from OHS brought home more than 70 medals from this year’s Academic Decathlon.
“I hope they are proud of what they have accomplished,” Hawksworth said of her AcaDec students. “I sure am!”
The competing team will move on to represent Stanislaus County at the state competition in Santa Clara the third week of March.
