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Students Win Medals at 19th Annual Academic Decathlon

Sacramento’s “Braniest” High Schools Announced

SCOE News

Individual and team winners of the 19th Annual Sacramento County Academic Decathlon—held Saturday, February 6, at Calif. State University, Sacramento—were announced last night by County Superintendent of Schools Dr. David P. Meaney. Following is a listing of those honored at the Academic Decathlon Awards Banquet presented by the Sacramento County Office of Education at Sacramento's Doubletree Hotel Wednesday, February 10:

Students with Overall Best Individual Scores

Gold Medals:

  • JOSH BENSON (Bella Vista)—Honors
  • MICHAEL BENSON (Bella Vista)—Scholastic
  • SCHULTZ (Bella Vista)—Varsity

Silver Medals:

  • JOHN STANLEY (Rio Americano)—Honors
  • ZACHARY JOE (Kennedy)—Scholastic
  • LISA GURIAN (Bella Vista)—Varsity

Bronze Medals:

  • MATTHEW POLSTER (Bella Vista)—Honors
  • LESLEY BARGAR (Bella Vista)—Scholastic
  • ZESHAUN ALVI (Rio Americano)—Varsity

Super Quiz Winners

  • 1st Place BELLA VISTA
  • 2nd Place MIRA LOMA / RIO AMERICANO (two-way tie)
  • 3rd Place KENNEDY

Team Rankings

  • 1st Place BELLA VISTA HIGH SCHOOL, coached by Mike Erickson
    The Bella Vista team advances to the statewide competition in Stockton in March.
  • 2nd Place RIO AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL, coached by Richard Thorn
  • 3rd Place MIRA LOMA HIGH SCHOOL, coached by David Mathews

Rankings of additional schools which participated in the 1999 Academic Decathlon were:

  • 4th Kennedy High
  • 5th Del Campo High
  • 6th Folsom High
  • 7th McClatchy High
  • 8th Rio Linda High
  • 9th Center High
  • 10th Valley High
  • 11th Florin High
  • 12th Sacramento High
  • 13th Elk Grove High
  • 14th Cordova High
  • 15th Rio Vista High
  • 16th Encina High
  • 17th Sheldon High
  • 18th Laguna Creek High
  • 19th Casa Roble High

About the Academic Decathlon. Each school's team, comprised of three Honors ("A" average) students, three Scholastic ("B" average) students, and three Varsity ("C" average) students, competed last Saturday in the 19th Annual Academic Decathlon. Modeling their efforts after the Olympic Decathlon, students vied for top individual and team scores in 10 events: Economics, Fine Arts, Science, Social Science, Language, Literature, Math, Essay, Interview, and Speech. The Academic Decathlon, an all-day event, represented months of study and preparation by 200 students and their teacher-coaches. Culminating the event was the Super Quiz, in which each team competed head-to-head against the others in answering tough questions on this year's theme, The Brain: Looking Inward. The Academic Decathlon is conducted each year by staff and volunteers of the Sacramento County Office of Education.