The Trumbull High School Academic Decathlon Team finished 3rd in the Connecticut Academic Decathlon competition held on Saturday March 1, 2014 in Waterbury, CT. Individual team members scored highly in many of the events, taking top honors in several, but an unforeseen absence and an inability to retain all team members in the hastily rescheduled event proved detrimental in the team’s effort to unseat New Fairfield High School as state champs.
The event which had been postponed from last month due to weather was held at a nearly deserted Post University campus whose students were away on Spring break. Several Post students and community members, however, returned to campus and made themselves available as judges for the interview and speech events which took place in the morning.
Trumbull’s efforts were hampered when two key members of the Varsity division were scratched from the contest: one because of a scheduling conflict and another with a bout of the stomach flu. Despite the diminished squad, Trumbull High School individual team members fared quite well winning several top medals in all divisions of the ten events.
Trumbull members winning gold medals in their respective divisions were: Miles Buroker in science; Caroline Forster in literature; Maneesh Koneru in economics and math; Samuel Carley in math and science; Jack Zhang in essay and social science; and Jacob Cohen in economics. First time competitor Jonathan Newland kept Trumbull close in the featured “Super Quiz” event with a strong showing in his division.
Each year this national student competition chooses a particular theme or epoch for participants to study and then tests their knowledge in ten tests taken over the course of a day. This year’s theme was World War I with Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises as the featured novel. The ten events are: art, economics, essay, language & literature, math, music, social science, science, speech/interview, and “Super Quiz”. The “Super Quiz” consists of questions from many of the disciplines and is the lone public competition where friends, relatives, and classmates can cheer on their teams.
A unique characteristic of the United States Academic Decathlon compared to other educational competitions is the requirement that each team be comprised of members with varying scholastic achievement levels. Thus, three members must have a grade point average (GPA) of greater than 3.75; three members will possess a GPA below 3; and 3 fall somewhere in the middle. This mandate allows for greater student diversity and a more realistic representation of a school’s overall student body.
Trumbull won second place in last year’s event and was state champion in 2011 and 2012. Next year’s theme will be announced in early April and preparations for the new season will begin immediately. Trumbull High School students who are interested in trying out for the team should contact coaches Steffanie Elkins, Sara Ellis, or Dean Pelligra for more information.