The Ventura County Office of Education is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2016 Ventura County Academic Decathlon is Westlake High School. This is Westlake’s fifth consecutive victory. Oak Park High School came in second place, and third place went to Moorpark High School. Oak Park High School also won the “Super Quiz” portion of the competition. The Academic Decathlon was held Saturday at Pacifica High School in Oxnard and the winners were announced at an awards ceremony Tuesday evening.
Westlake 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.
Competition Day Photo Gallery
Awards Ceremony Photo Gallery
Video of Overall Winner Announcement
Westlake High School Academic Decathlon Team
Coach: Joe Nigro
Alex Milio
Ana Park Von Simun
Ashley Wold
Connie Ye
Cynthia Hsu
David Suslik
Fareen Ali
Jensen Northrup
Kevin He
Oak Park High School Academic Decathlon Team
Coach: Robin Midiri
Aneesh Gowri
David Hsu
Dennis Chiu
Jacob Tennant
Kimberly Khacherian
Matthew Archer
Roopa Chandra
Rutwik Tipireddy
Sonali Murugan
High schools fielding teams this year were: Adolfo Camarillo, Buena, Channel Islands, Fillmore, Moorpark, Newbury Park, Oak Park, Oxnard, Pacifica, Rio Mesa, Royal, Santa Susana, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and Westlake. The theme of this year’s competition is “India.”
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.