Taking Home The Gold In The Mother Lode Academic Decathlon
Sonora, CA – In the spirit of the Olympics, four high schools from Tuolumne and Calaveras counties competed in the 43rd Annual Mother Lode Regional Academic Decathlon Competition that began last month with gold, silver and bronze medal winners.
This year’s theme was “Water: A Most Essential Resource” with Summerville High School, Bret Harte High School, Tioga High School, and Mountain Oaks Charter School students showing their academic skills in ten events. The subjects included art, economics, language and literature, music, science, math, and social science, and subjective testing included an essay, an interview, and a prepared and an impromptu speech. The team scores are calculated using the top two individual scores from each division to arrive at an overall team score.
Bret Harte took top honors with a combined score of 31,509.42 points. Second place went to Summerville with 27,555.58 points. Both teams will move on to compete in the state competition slated for March 1st through March 19th. Followed a month later (April 21 – 23) by the national finals. Both competitions will be held virtually.
Gold, silver, and bronze medals were also handed out to students for individual events and total scores and the gold medalists are listed here:
- Art: Eva Estes, Mountain Oaks
- Economics: Jordan Smith, Bret Harte
- Essay: Eva Estes, Mountain Oaks
- Interview: Jaycee Davey, Bret Harte
- Language and Literature: Lindsey Holland, Summerville
- Math: Jordan Smith, Bret Harte
- Music: Eva Estes, Mountain Oaks
- Science: Avery Strauch, Bret Harte
- Social Science: Eva Estes, Mountain Oaks
- Speech: Lindsey Holland, Summerville
The team coaches: Jennifer Truman at Bret Harte High School, Bill Redford and Sara Tesch at Mountain Oaks, Ken Favell at Summerville High School, and Emily Hanchett at Tioga High School.
