THS Academic Decathlon Team Advances

The following piece ran in the Trumbull High School The Eagle's Eye:

For the second year in a row, the Trumbull High Academic Decathlon team has won the state competition and is moving on to Nationals. Considering the fact that the program only started 3 years ago, and that they faced far more experienced teams from other schools makes it even more amazing.

Competing this year for Trumbull were Annie Lane, Vishakha Negi, and Miles Buroker Caroline Forester, Jack Zhang, Samuel Carley, Daniel Hirshfield, Andrew Francia, and Mellina Silver. The Trumbull High School team is coached by Steffanie Elkins, Louis Monaco, and Dean Pelligra.

This year, the competition, which is split into ten different categories, centered on the theme of Imperialism. Each member of the team competed in all of these ten categories: literature, math, science, economics, music, art, speech, interview, essay, and super quiz. A unique aspect of the Academic Decathlon that it is designed to include students from all academic abilities and achievement levels. Each nine-member team consists of three “A” (Honor division), three “B” (Scholastic division), and three “C or below” (Varsity division) students. Each member competes in all ten events against other students in their individual divisions. However, team scores are calculated using the top two individual scores from each division to arrive at an overall team score.

This time around, the team went through unusual challenges on their road to victory. The essay portion of the competition happened to be scheduled right during Trumbull’s February Break. Therefore, students had to write their own essays from home during their own vacation time. In addition, one of the team members, Rachel Son, had just moved the day prior to the competition, causing the team to lose one of its valuable team members. Despite these tribulations and the bus almost getting lost en route, the team arrived on time for the competition at Oxford High School.

The year-long preparation culminated in the annual state contest which pitted Trumbull against seasoned favorites New Fairfield, Hamden Hall Country Day, Montville, and Oxford High Schools of Connecticut and included the Alvirne High School team, which travelled from New Hampshire to compete this year.

The nearly twelve hour event was an exhausting day of testing for the students but the team’s collective haul of 11 Gold, 10 Silver, and 9 Bronze medals more than made up for frayed nerves. Honors division member Vishakha Negi won a gold medal, and Scholastic division member Dan Hirschfield won a silver medal as individuals for their overall scores. Mellina Silver had the honor of presenting at the Speech Showcase. Her speech on taking action on the issues struck a chord with the audience.

However, it was uncertain that Trumbull was going to win, especially since New Fairfield and Hamden both had quality performances of their own. It was even uncertain that Trumbull would make it to the top three. Holding their breaths as the third and second place school were announced, the members of the Trumbull High School Academic Decathlon team rejoiced upon being pronounced the state champions.

As a result of the state win, Trumbull has been invited to the United States Academic Decathlon national event to be held this year in Albuquerque, New Mexico from April 26-28. The national event assembles the winning teams from 43 states and international schools that compete. Nationally, over 1,600 schools are involved in USAD and one team will be crowned the national winner at the completion of this final round of tests.