The Ventura County Office of Education is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2015 Ventura County Academic Decathlon is Westlake High School. This is Westlake’s fourth consecutive victory. Oak Park High School came in second place, and third place went to Westlake High School’s B team. Oak Park high school won the “Super Quiz” portion of the competition, which was held on Saturday. The winners were announced this evening at a ceremony at Pacifica High School in Oxnard.
To see a video of the crowd going wild as the results were announced, click here.
Westlake High School will now advance to the state Academic Decathlon, which will be in March. The winning California team moves on to the national competition. Ventura County teams have made it to the nationals six times, placing second in 2000 and 2002, and taking first place in 1999, 2003, 2008 and 2009.
Westlake High School Academic Decathlon Team
Coach: Joseph Nigro, Ben Hannel, Sophie Piao, David Suslik, Kevin He, Tatyana Mustakos, Marcus Nordstrom, Ana Park Von Simun, Sabrina Shenker, Yorai Vardi
Oak Park High School Academic Decathlon Team
Coach: Robin Midiri, Dennis Chiu, Tushar Jois, Alex Pai, Maya Halthore, Justin Liu, Ashley Siavoshi, Alvin Cheng, Bailee Larsen, Chandana Srinivas
High schools fielding teams this year were: Adolfo Camarillo, Buena, Channel Islands, Moorpark, Newbury Park, Oak Park, Oxnard, Pacifica, Rio Mesa, Royal, Santa Clara, Santa Susana, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Ventura and Westlake. The theme of this year’s competition is “New Alternatives in Energy: Ingenuity and Innovation.”
About the Academic Decathlon
The Academic Decathlon is an opportunity for high school students in Ventura County to compete against like teams of students countywide. Students compete in ten academic events that cover subjects ranging from art to economics. The United States Academic Decathlon is the nation’s premier scholastic competition for students from public and private high schools across the country.
A unique aspect of the competition is that it’s designed to include students from all academic backgrounds. A team consists of nine full-time students from the 9th through 12th grades at the same high school. Each team is comprised of three students whose grade point average falls into the “A” category, three students in the “B” category and three students in the “C” category.