California Academic Decathlon results for Esperanza and Valencia high schools

Esperanza High School (pictured above)
Esperanza High School recently had nine students participate in the California Academic Decathlon (CAD) virtual competition. Overall, the team had an impressive showing, earning 11 medals.  Here are the results:

Alex Tumakay = Bronze Medal in Science

Justine Koo = Bronze Medal in Math and Silver Medal in Music

Ella Reynoza = Silver Medals in Economics, Math and Music

Matthew Hoang = Bronze Medals in Art & Music; Silver Medals in Literature & Math

Matthew Hoang also earned bronze overall individual (meaning he had the 3rd highest score in the state’s virtual team competition). 

It is very difficult to earn medals at this level since it includes several of the best schools in the entire state of California. Way to go, EHS!

Valencia High School
VHS Academic Decathlon placed 12th overall in the state of California. This is one of the school’s best-ever finishes! Considering California is by far the most competitive state in the U.S., this likely puts VHS somewhere in the top ~50-75 teams in the country.

The team was led by team captain senior Arushi Somani (Gold medal in speech) and overall top scorer sophomore Saebyeok Keum, who received the highest-ever total score for a VHS sophomore. Arushi, Saebyeok, Nathan Lee (junior) and Rini Dagli (junior) also received bronze K-Club honors for achieving scores over 7,000 points.

Remaining starters Asher McCathern (junior), Aina Pan (junior), Grace Cortez (senior), Lily Gabriel-Rogel (senior), and Perseus Sannah (senior) were also key contributors, raising their scores from the county competition.

Several Tigers also competed in the online individual state competition. These students brought home the school’s best-ever medal count (#4 out of all competing schools) for the online competition:

• Ryan Lin (Junior): Economics (Gold), Lit (Bronze)
• Irene Pan (Freshman): Social Science (Gold), Lit (Silver), Art (Bronze)
• Perseus Sannah (Senior): Lit (Gold), Social Science (Silver)
• Darshil Vaishnav (Senior): Science (Silver)
• Aarushi Verma (Junior): Math (Gold)

Great work, Tigers!