Lemoore's Middle College High School easily wins 7th Academic Decathlon in row

For the local Lemoore high school, housed on the West Hills College Lemoore campus, it was its seventh win in a row. The Middle College High School will go up against the state’s best at the State Academic Decathlon competition in Sacramento in March.

The event was lucrative for some students as more than $5,750  worth of scholarships were awarded to top placing county students. One of those students was Randen Banuelos, a Middle College High School student named the event’s Top Decathlete and Top Honors Student. Banuelos won a $1,000 scholarship for the top award and $500 for Top Honors.

Jasmine Oliveira, the Top Varsity Student, also a Middle College student, won a $500-dollar award, as did Nathalia DeSouza, the event’s top Scholastic Student, also from the Middle College.

Sierra Pacific High School finished third overall in the competition with 31,910 points while Hanford West, with its 22,6734 points was fourth. Fifth place went to Corcoran High while Hanford High finished sixth and Avenal took seventh place.

Team members spent two weekends participating in 10 grueling events in the Decathlon, including art, economics, mathematics, music, language and literature, social science and science. Also, the contestants performed prepared and impromptu speeches, wrote essays on a given topic, and participated in interview competitions.

The culminating activity was the Super Quiz given at the end of the competition and open to the public. This year’s theme for the event and the Super Quiz was “The 1960s.” Teams competed as A, B, and C students.

The Lemoore Middle College High School team also won the Super Quiz with 4,830 points.