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KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Upper Lake High School brought home the trophy at Saturday's Lake County Academic Decathlon, giving a dominating performance that unseated last year's winning team.
Upper Lake, which last took home the trophy in the 2011-12 school year, beat out Clear Lake High School, the defending champion, and Kelseyville High School.
Upper Lake's head coach, Anna Sabalone, an alumna of the school and a former academic decathlete herself, savored bringing the trophy back to her school after a three-year absence.
“I'm still in shock,” she said afterward the competition, in between sharing hugs with excited students.
She said of her students, “I'm so proud of them. They wanted it.”
Academic Decathlon teams include three members each from three academic levels: Honors, with a grade point average of 3.75 to 4.00; Scholastic, 3.00 to 3.74 GPA; and Varsity, GPA of 2.99 or below.
Those teams compete in 10 academic disciplines – arts, economics, essay, interview, language and literature, mathematics, music, science, social science and speech.
The competition also includes the Super Quiz, plus the unscored poster and poetry contests.
This year's competition topic is India.
“It takes a lot of hard work to be a decathlete,” Tammy Serpa, education specialist with Career and College Readiness Department of the Lake County Office of Education, said during the competition.
Serpa and Academic Decathlon Coordinator Norma Cromwell oversaw the organization of this year's competition.
The essay, speech and interview portions of the competition had taken place in January, with the rest of the subject tests taken by the more than 50 participating students on Saturday morning.
The community was able to attend the Super Quiz portion, held in Kelseyville High School's cafeteria, which was followed by the awards presentation.
“What a terrific event,” said Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg, who introduced the Saturday afternoon Super Quiz, the portion of the competition open to the competition.
Falkenberg said it's rewarding to honor student achievements. Later in the afternoon, he helped hand out the awards, in so doing getting to put several medals around the necks of his twin sons, Cord and Nate.
Cord and Nate Falkenberg were first and second, respectively, in the total number of points they earned for their Clear Lake High School team, with Cord Falkenberg also the overall top-scoring student of the event.
During the awards presentation, Upper Lake High students David Becerra-Lopez and Mercedes De Los Santos gave their winning speeches.
Becerra-Lopez spoke about engaging and socializing with others.
“Every person is an opportunity to discover something new,” he said.
De Los Santos discussed the stresses young people her age face in meeting their obligations at school and at home.
Later, after the winning team was announced and the suspense was over, De Los Santos had a chance to celebrate.
De Los Santos, a first-year academic decathlete, summed up the experience as “crazy” but great.
“It was hard and stressful and also absolutely, positively worth it,” she said.
She said it has been a long stretch without an Academic Decathlon championship for Upper Lake High, which has won more championships over the past 15 years than any other local high school team.
“I felt we brought back our honor,” De Los Santos said.
While other teams have dropped out of the competition in recent years – Middletown and Lower Lake high schools are not currently taking part – Upper Lake High School has maintained its Academic Decathlon class, even when budgets were tight.
Upper Lake Union High School Principal/Superintendent Patrick Iaccino, who was on hand for the Saturday competition, said the event shows why it was important to maintain.
“I'm a firm believer in kids having opportunities,” Iaccino said.
He said it's educators' responsibility to keep offerings like the Academic Decathlon, Mock Trial and engaging coursework like robotics available. Iaccino added that it's amazing to see how many different activities the students are taking on at his school.
“I wish more people could see this,” he said of the students' performance at the Academic Decathlon.
Upper Lake High School's team now advances to the California Academic Decathlon competition in Sacramento March 17 to 20.
Sabalone said she'll give the students a few days of rest before buckling down for a final month of study. Students like De Los Santos also will be preparing for the Lake County Mock Trial competition in Lakeport Feb. 12.
The Lake County Friends of Mendocino College is giving $250 to Upper Lake High School to help pay for the trip to the state Academic Decathlon competition.
Team rosters and full competition results are listed below.
TEAM ROSTERS
Clear Lake High School
Superintendent: Erin Smith-Hagberg
Principal: Marty Wilkes
Coach: Kristi Tripp
Jessica Beall, Miah Bullard, Berenise Cortez, Cord Falkenberg, Nate Falkenberg, Chris Griffith, Nikki Hanson, Ethan Jones, Subhagya Joshi, Haley Lindley, Jessica Moreno, Antonio Perez, Sarah Pope, Andrew Scott, Iris Vasquez
Kelseyville High School
Superintendent: Dave McQueen
Principal: Matt Cockerton
Coaches: Erick Larsen and Heather Koschik
Andreas Aceves, Kristen Amendola, Madison Boyd, Summer Brown, Kelsie Engle, Garrett Grossner, Cassidy Holmes, Wyatt Mascolina, Cassidy McCoy, Samantha Nugent, Kallianne Otte, Anna Pak, Nidhi Patel, Megan Petersen, Nolan Rae, Tiara Richards, Merin Rixen, Sarah Sheridan, Nichole Stevens, Makenzee Taylor, Kaylie Williams
Upper Lake High School
Superintendent/Principal: Patrick Iaccino
Coaches: Anna Sabalone, Angel Hayenga and Christal Coatney
David Becerra-Lopez, Mercedes De Los Santos, Daniela Estrada-Flores, Eduardo Eufracio-Duran, Katie Foster, Megan Franco, Casey Herman, Kenneth Hodges, Miranda Huntley, Anisha Kalan, Kehlani McKelvey, Tyler Mendenhall, Wroehnyn Milks, Cristal Nieves, Travis Rife, Elizabeth Rosas-Moreno, Brenna Sanchez, Steven Stump, Rosemary Su, Edgar Valencia, Sarah Williams
AWARDS
Team placement
First place: Upper Lake High School
Second place: Clear Lake High School
Third place: Kelseyville High School
Poster contest
First place: Kristen Amendola, KHS
Second place: Jessica Moreno, CLHS
Third place: Ethan Jones, CLHS
The Lake County Arts Council sponsored the poster contest.
Poetry contest
First place: Steven Stump, ULHS
Second place: Jessica Moreno, CLHS
Third place: Nate Falkenberg, CLHS
The Lake County Arts Council sponsored the poetry contest.
Super Quiz
First place: Upper Lake High School
Second place: Clear Lake High School
Third place: Kelseyville High School
Language and literature
First place: (two-way tie) Katie Foster, ULHS; Mercedes De Los Santos, ULHS
Second place: (two-way tie) Anisha Kalan, ULHS; Nate Falkenberg, CLHS
Third place: (two-way tie) Steven Stump, ULHS; Casey Herman, ULHS
Art
First place: Casey Herman, ULHS
Second place: Edgar Valencia, ULHS
Third place: Travis Rife, ULHS
Social science
First place: Casey Herman, ULHS
Second place: Steven Stump, ULHS
Third place: (three-way tie) Travis Rife, ULHS; Katie Foster, ULHS: Mercedes De Los Santos, ULHS
Math
First place: Cord Falkenberg, CLHS
Second place: Ethan Jones, CLHS
Third place: Cassidy Holmes, KHS
Music
First place: Steven Stump, ULHS
Second place: (two-way tie) Mercedes De Los Santos, ULHS; Casey Herman, ULHS
Third place: (two-way tie) Cord Falkenberg, CLHS; Brenna Sanchez, ULHS
Economics
First place: Travis Rife, ULHS
Second place: Nate Falkenberg, CLHS
Third place: Katie Foster, ULHS
Science
First place: Katie Foster, ULHS
Second place: (two-way tie) Cord Falkenberg, CLHS; Nate Falkenberg, CLHS
Third place: Anna Pak, KHS
Essay
First place: Cord Falkenberg, CLHS
Second place: Jessica Beall, CLHS
Third place: Kaylie Williams, KHS
Speech
First place: Mercedes De Los Santos, ULHS
Second place: David Becerra-Lopez, ULHS
Third place: Anisha Kalan, ULHS
The Lakeport Lions Club sponsored the speech contest, with awards of $125, $75 and $50 for the first, second and third place finishers, respectively.
Interview
First place: David Becerra-Lopez, ULHS
Second place: Mercedes De Los Santos, ULHS
Third place: Antonio Perez, CLHS
Mendo Lake Credit Union sponsored the interview contest, with awards of $125, $75 and $50 for the first, second and third place finishers, respectively.
TOP FINISHERS FOR EACH ACADEMIC LEVEL
Honors category (3.75-4.00 grade point average)
First place: Casey Herman, ULHS
Second place: Steven Stump, ULHS
Third place: Anisha Kalan, ULHS
Scholastic category (3.00-3.74 GPA)
First place: Cord Falkenberg, CLHS
Second place: Mercedes De Los Santos, ULHS
Third place: Katie Foster, ULHS
Varsity category (2.99 GPA or below)
First place: Travis Rife, ULHS
Second place: Edgar Valencia, ULHS
Third place: Haley Lindley, CLHS
SECOND HIGHEST SCORING STUDENTS, PER SCHOOL
Clear Lake High: Nate Falkenberg
Kelseyville High: Kristen Amendola
Upper Lake High School: Mercedes De Los Santos
HIGHEST SCORING STUDENTS, PER SCHOOL
Clear Lake High: Cord Falkenberg (also the overall top scorer of all students)
Kelseyville High: Cassidy Holmes
Upper Lake High School: Casey Herman
The Lodge at Blue Lakes provided $100 scholarships for each of the schools' top-scoring students.
Email Elizabeth Larson at elarson@lakeconews.com . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.