All four PYLUSD high schools earn top honors at virtual Orange County Academic Decathlon

Over three consecutive Saturdays from January 23 through February 6, all four Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District (PYLUSD) comprehensive high schools competed in the Orange County Academic Decathlon (OCAD) in an online format. Due to the unique nature of this school year, all of the traditional OCAD events were adapted to an online format except the Super Quiz Relay.

For 53 years, this event has invited public and private high school students to compete in a series of academic tests and demonstrations. The topics cover a variety of academic disciplines, including art, economics, essay, interview, language and literature, mathematics, music, science, social science, and speech. This year’s theme was, “The Cold War.”

On Wednesday, February 17, it was announced that PYLUSD high schools earned top honors at the OCAD Awards Ceremony at Orange County College.

In Division 1, Valencia High School came in third place, earning the Tigers an invitation to the state competition scheduled for March in Sacramento. Esperanza High School also had a strong showing in Division 1 earning seventh place, which also qualified the Aztecs for the state finals.

El Dorado High School and Yorba Linda High School competed at the Division 2 level, earning third place and fourth place, respectively. In Division 1 and 2, PYLUSD is proud to have all four schools ranked among the top in Orange County!

Here are the individual results from all four PYLUSD high schools:

El Dorado High School

El Dorado’s Academic Decathlon team earned third place in Division 2. The decathletes are Josef Ammari, Isabella Clark, Alexander Hobrath, Emma Kim, Tushaar Mohta, Romney Olson, Maverick Shuck, Emily Solheid, Becca Preusch, Allyson Weisel, and Jamie Weisel. Coaches are Amanda Dato, Amanda Wolf, Steve Settle, Kelly Smith, Tim Vrooman.

The following students who won individual medals:

Alexander Hobrath – 2nd place in Essay
Josef Ammari- 5th place in Art, 4th place in Social Science, and 4th place in Science
Isabella Clark- 4th place in Economics, 2nd place in Essay, 5th place in Interview, and 3rd place in Speech
Emily Solheid- 4th place in Art, 5th place in Math, 2nd place in Science, 1st place in Essay, 1st place in Interview, and 1st place in Speech
Maverick Shuck- 3rd place in Music, 2nd place in Social Science, 4th place in Economics, 5th place in Math, 4th place in Science, 1st place in Essay, 1st place in Speech, and a perfect score in Interview

El Dorado High School’s 2020-2021 Academic Decathlon team.

Esperanza High School

Esperanza’s Academic Decathlon team earned seventh place in Division 1 and an invitation to the state competition. Here is a list of decathletes and those who won individual medals:

Avinaash Sarma (junior)
Kaitlyn Thiha (junior)
Julia Chan (junior) = 1 medal (4th literature)
Jovan Sheldon (junior) = 1 medal (4th literature)
Saloni Rajput (junior) = 1 medal (5th speech)
Thaimas Andronaco (senior) = 1 medal (4th literature)
Michael Martinez (senior) = 1 medal (3rd interview)
Katrina Liu (senior) = 1 medal (1st interview with a perfect score)
Naya Williams (junior) = 2 medal (2nd literature, 4th interview)
Matthew Nguyen (senior) = 2 medal (2nd speech, 4th social science)
Kruthika Sharma (senior) = 2 medal (3rd interview, 4th economics)
Megan Davis (junior) = 3 medals (1st essay, 3rd interview, 3rd social science)
Dyanna Henriquez-Serrano (senior) = 4 medals (1st interview with a perfect score, 2nd science, 3rd literature, 3rd speech)

Valencia High School

Valencia’s Academic Decathlon team earned third place in Division 1 and an invitation to the state competition. Coaches are Calen Rau and Mindi Foote. Here is a summary of individual student achievements:

Team captain Catherine Park (12) placed 3rd overall out of over 500 decathletes. Earning 1st Place medals in Music (Perfect Score), Literature, Social Science, Economics, Math, and Interview (Perfect Score), as well as 3rd in Art.
John (Jack) Garcia (12) placed 3rd overall in Scholastic, earning 1st place medals in Economics and Interview (Perfect Score), and medaling in Art (4th), Literature (2nd), Social Science (2nd), and Speech (2nd).
Aaron Kim (11)placed 3rd overall in Varsity, earning 1st place medals in Economics, Music, and Math and medals in Art (2nd), Science (5th), Interview (2nd), and Speech (5th)

Other Decathletes included:

Nundini Varshney (12): Art (5th), Lit (4th), Essay (4th)
Shweta Shah (12): Art (2nd), Econ (2nd), Math (4th), Speech (4th)
Dominique Hemedez (12): 9th Overall (Scholastic), Art (2nd), Math (4th), Essay (5th)
Izabella Padilla (12): Lit (3rd)
Sean Nguyen (11): Music (4th), Lit (4th), Econ (2nd), Science (4th), Essay (1st), Interview (2nd), Speech (1st)
Carolyn Lin (11): Music (4th), Essay (2nd)
Andrea Wang (11): Math (5th), Essay (5th)
Kate Toller (11)
Arushi Somani (10): Social Science (5th), Interview (1st -w/ a perfect score), Speech (3rd)
Darshil Vaishnav (10): Art (2nd)
Vivek Shah (10)

Yorba Linda High School

Yorba Linda High School earned fourth place in Orange County for Division 2. Here is a recap of the team’s achievements.

Syra Patel earned 5 medals including a PERFECT score on the Interview portion. She earned a 2nd place for essay.
Celeste Esqueda earned 7 medals including two 2nd place medals and two 3rd place medals.
Sophia Shah earned two medals including 3rd place for social studies.
Yasmeen Shah earned 4th place in social studies.
Richard Du earned 2nd place for Art and
Jason Yang earned a 3rd place finish for essay.
Sharon Hwang and Nathan Le earned 5th place medals.

“We had a great team and our students did a terrific job,” shared Interim Principal Richard Dinh.

To read more about the competition courtesy of the Orange County Department of Education, please visit https://newsroom.ocde.us/irvines-university-high-school-wins-the-orange-county-academic-decathlon/.