Academic Decathlon takes county title

— Submitted

The Academic Decathlon team went to Fresno State University for a lecture for the AD teams in the area. The team members got to see the former advisor, Dave Carpenter, at the conference. From right to left: Betsy Blum, Carpenter, Amit Gurnani, Saranya Srinivasan, Michael McCarty, Brook Bullock (cheerleader), Matthew Casner, Brad Lohuis, Hilary Bowman, Deborah Brown, Nicole Koczanowicz and Luke Millar.

Bailey Whitcanack

For the ninth consecutive year, the Yosemite High School Academic Decathlon team has beaten Chowchilla and Madera high schools in the county competition. Out of 60,000 points, Yosemite scored 33,030. The statewide competition was held in Modesto on March 22-24 (results were not available at press time).

When the students from Yosemite left the county competition, they had six bronze medals, six silver, and seven gold medals. Each medal earned students an award; gold medal winners received $100, silvers got $75, and bronzes acquired $50. (This money goes straight to the students, not into a bond or towards scholarships.)

All of the students attained new knowledge. Even the coaches learned a lot. Coach Deborah Brown commented, "I know more about art, history, and the internet than I probably would have ever known."

The Yosemite medal winners at the county level are:

Gold - Saranya Srinivasan: Art, Speech, Music, Language and Literature, Interview, Super Quiz; Nicole Koczanowicz: Essay

Silver - Matthew Casner: Art; Nicole Koczanowicz: Language and Literature; Saranya Srini-vasan: Mathematics, Essay, Science, Economics.

Bronze - Hilary Bowman: Art, Speech, Essay, Music; Matthew Casner: Science, Language and Literature.

Yosemite senior Srinivasan won medals in every category. She won six out of the seven golds awarded to Yosemite. Srinivasan also scored the highest number of points over the 10 events in which she competed. For this accomplishment, she was awarded a $200 scholarship.

Srinivasan is the only student who has been on the team before. She received a perfect score on her competition speech, and presented it at the awards ceremony. Teammate Kocza- nowicz, a junior at Yosemite High School, also read her top essay at the ceremony.

Students on the team are Luke Millar, Alek Bohigian, Matthew Casner, Brad Lohius, Hilary Bowman, Brook Bullock, Saranya Srinivasan, and alternate Amit Gurnani. Deborah Brown and Betsy Blum co-coach the team. The team meets Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 3:10 to 5 in Brown's room to study and practice. They use study materials provided by the United States Academic Decathlon Organization. Aca- demic Decathlon is not a class; students do not receive any credit for their work. The entire organization is based on learning (voluntarily!).

In October, the team raised $2,400 and flew to Chicago to see the art pieces that would be featured in the art event. The trip paid off, Yosemite won all three medals in the event.

Country western was the musical theme for this year's competition. Students admitted that at first they didn't like this type of music, but they learned to accept it. A country western concert was put on for the Academic Decathlon teams in Bakersfield, which Yosemite attended.

The YHS Academic Deca- thelon team won the state title for its division in 2001.