Lemoore Middle College AD team earns another trip to Nationals in Frisco, Texas

The Lemoore Middle College AD team previously competed in the AD Nationals at Frisco, Texas in 2018, taking home first place in Div. IV (small/med school).  They followed that victory in 2019 with another first-place Div. IV finish at Bloomington, Minnesota. 

Following COVID cancellations in 2020 and 2021, in 2022, an online competition was held, and LMCHS placed second in Div. IV.

The nine-student AD team, led by coaches Allen Tong and Janet and John Bengtson, earned a Nationals invite by their performance at the State Championship last weekend, where they placed 11th out of 59 teams, the vast majority of which were schools with over 2,000 students. 

By comparison, LMCHS has only 232 students.  In addition to the impressive showing by the team as a whole, three of the teammates won individual awards for their efforts:  Richard Harmiel won a gold medal in Essay and a silver medal in Art; Nazareth Franco won a silver medal in Interview, and Luna Wheaton was Top Scorer for LMCHS.

Now begins a final frantic month of in-school, late-night, and weekend study by the students, and rigorous instruction and review testing by the coaches, to prepare for the big event.  Helping motivate it all is the larger sense of responsibility captured by Coach Tong: “It’s quite an honor for our school and community to represent California at the National competition. Our team is looking forward to the challenge.”

Joining small-school rep LMCHS at the Nationals will be Sherman Oaks Center for Enrichment Studies HS (medium-school rep); and El Camino Real HS (large-school rep).

The photo shows the team and their coaches following their first win of the year at the Kings County competition on Feb 4.