MUSD Students Place in Academic Decathlon

Several MUSD schools participated in San Joaquin County’s annual Academic Decathlon competition, which ran from January 20-21 and concluded with a final event on February 6th. The 2021 contest was held virtually and marks the 40th anniversary of the event.

Academic Decathlon is an annual high school competition consisting of seven objective multiple-choice tests, two subjective performance events, and an essay. Each year has a chosen theme or topic, with this year’s focus being on the Cold War. Participating students have spent the year learning about this topic in great detail, tracing the Cold War’s impact on economics, literature, math, music, science, and history. Teams are typically made up of nine members who are divided up in three divisions based on GPA: Honors (4.0+ to 3.8), Scholastic (3.79 to 3.2), and Varsity (3.19 to 0.0) and are tested on their knowledge of the year’s theme. In total, 12 schools participated in the virtual competition, with 242 students going headto-head.

Some notable winners include Manteca High School, who placed 2nd in the county in the Super Quiz event, and Lathrop High School, who placed 3rd overall at the Division 1 Level and placed 1st in San Joaquin County public, noncharter schools! Two LHS students, Vanessa Laoeng and Yash Prasad, were awarded $5,000 scholarships through the University of Pacific for having met university requirements!

Manteca High -

Ellie Kim: 4 Gold Medals

Megan Pangburn: 3 Medals

Ravpreet Grewel: 3 Medals

Sierra High -

Seann Ryan Calub: Gold Medal in the Essay Category at the Scholastic Level

Sydney Ladrido: Silver Medal in the Interview Category at the Scholastic Level

Lathrop High -

Salvador Reyes: 1st Place at the Division I Varsity Level

David Hernandez: 2nd Place at the Division I Scholastic Level

Amanpreet Atwal: 1st Place at the Division II Scholastic Level