Sierra Pacific High School’s 2021-2022 Academic Decathlon regional competition has started this year and they have completed the essay, speech, and interview competitions. On Saturday, Feb. 5, 2022, they will compete in the remaining seven objective tests. The seven objective tests are Art, Music, Social Science, Science, Economics, Literature, and Mathematics. If they end up winning the regional competition they will move onto the state championship in March, and if they win that they’ll move on to the national competition in April.
Teams are made up of nine students in three GPA-based divisions and the minimum is six students, two per division. Three Honor students (3.80 – 4.00 GPA), 3 Scholastic students (3.20 – 3.799 GPA), and 3 Varsity students (0.00 – 3.199 GPA). The Sierra Pacific team has six students and they are Aayush Raiyani, Adrian Del Castillo, XinYu Yang, Yu Qi Yang, and Aditya Saharanam. The seven objective tests are Art, Music, Social Science, Science, Economics, Literature, and Mathematics.
Sierra Pacific earned sixth place with 18,102 points. Aniruddha Ashok, a senior, earned third place in literature, second place in economics, and third place in social studies, all in the Varsity division. Aditya Saharanam, a freshman, earned second place in mathematics in the Scholastic division. Sierra Pacific’s top-scoring Honor decathlete is Aayush Raiyana, top-scoring scholastic decathlete is Aditya Saharnam, and lastly, top-scoring Varsity decathlete is Aniruddha Ashok. He’s the top-scoring overall decathlete and team/president captain who earned himself a $200 scholarship.
One of the members of Golden Bears is Yu QI Yang, a sophomore. It is her first year starting Academic Decathlon, stating she joined because she thought it would be exciting and fun. She says, “I enjoyed it because of the people”. Yu Qi also offers some advice to newcomers stating that if you’re planning to compete, be prepared for a tad bit of extra work.
Their advisor, Brian Dull, has been teaching Academic Decathlon for more than 15 years. Dull loves Academic Decathlon, here’s what he had to say, “It was really awesome to take on the academic challenges” Dull states. ”To work with impressive peers, and luckily, to win.” He used to be an assistant coach at Hanford West years ago then after the last coach left he took over. “I have not been able to let go of the program because it is such a special intellectual experience –so impactful and important — that I want students to keep joining and enjoying AD!” The year that was the best for him was when he offered Academic Athlon a class during the school day.