(Cazenovia, NY – May 2014) The Cazenovia Academic Decathlon team’s three senior members each won a medal, and the team placed 17th out of 51 teams in the “super quiz” category at the national competition held April 24-26 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Cazenovia High School senior Bob Louis won a gold medal for his essay, which was ranked No. 1 in the competition, with a score of 983 out of 1,000 points. Classmates Danielle Axelson and Emma Dudley each won a bronze medal for their interviews.
The team – comprised of seniors Axelson, Dudley and Louis, juniors Remi Boissonnas, Katherine Boone, Brock Houghton, Riley Lloyd and Piper McKinnon, and sophomore Joe Mevec – advanced to nationals after winning the state title in March at State University College at Brockport. (Eleventh-graders Chase Matteson and Lars Ohlsen served as alternates on the team.)
Cazenovia finished 41st overall (out of 51 schools) and 11th in the small schools division, team adviser Ben Wightman said.
“The 41st overall finish was a little disappointing, but the 17th place finish in the ‘super quiz’ was very exciting,” Mr. Wightman said.
During the daylong events, competitors take seven written exams – each with 50 multiple-choice questions and a 30-minute time limit. Next, they participate in an oral relay quiz in front of an audience. In all, the students are tested in 10 categories — art, economics, essay, interview, language and literature, mathematics, music, science, social science and speech.
Academic Decathlon teams are not the exclusive domains of straight-A students. According to the official rules, each AD team must consist of three A students, three B students and three C students (plus alternates).
“For the first time in Academic Decathlon history, the students were allowed to collaborate with some of their teammates during the super quiz,” Mr. Wightman said. “We weren’t sure what to expect from the new format at first, but after trying it, the students all said it was an improvement.”
The team’s “C” squad – Boissonnas, McKinnon and Houghton – did particularly well with the change, Wightman said.
“They competed in the first round and had us in second place among the small schools, before we faltered a little in the subsequent rounds,” he said.
The team went into fundraising overdrive all year, in anticipation of making it all the way to nationals and then paying for the trip to Hawaii.
Over the course of the year, the community donated approximately $18,000 to the team, with the majority of contributions ($12,000) coming in just under the wire, in March and April, Wightman said.
While in Hawaii, the students visited Pearl Harbor, Diamond Head, Waikiki Beach, the Dole Plantation, the North Shore, Pali Lookout and other locations around Oahu.