Irving’s Nimitz High School wins Academic Decathlon Regional Meet … again

by PegNews wire

On January 18, the Nimitz High School Academic Decathlon Team won their 18th regional championship in 21 years with a total of 72 medals and 46,001 points - more than 1,000 points ahead of second place finisher Marcus High School from Lewisville ISD.

MacArthur High School hosted the event for the second year in a row, this year consisting of 13 large school teams and 12 teams from medium schools.

In an Academic Decathlon competition, a team of nine students compete in ten categories (hence the "deca" part) against other teams. Standard categories include Math, Literature, Arts, Social Science, Economics, and so on, with the "buzz" topic, known as "Super Quiz," varying each year, from Astronomy, for example, to Botany to the American Civil War.

Each member of the Nimitz team medaled in at least five categories, with senior Austin Christenberry winning 13 medal and thereafter being named as the entire meet’s top “A” student and top scoring student overall. Also finishing in the top five in their divisions were Emarric Zipper, Cory McMullen, Celeste Martinez, Kevin Perkins, Patrick Lewis, Murtaza Jafferji, and Sara Enriquez. Perkins, Zipper, McMullin and Martinez each won nine individual medals; Lewis earned eight; Jafferji, Enriquez and Hyungoo Kang won five medals each. Nimitz won the Super Quiz and the Super Quiz Relay with Martinez, Kang and Perkins posting perfect scores in that event.

“We knew going into the competition that Marcus, Flower Mound, and Creekview [high schools] would be very formidable…I knew that our kids had great talent, but I had not yet seen the tangible results of that talent,” according to Greg Jackson, math teacher at Nimitz and academic decathlon coach. “Needless to say, they performed brilliantly this weekend, and I could not be prouder of them.”

MacArthur’s team finished seventh with 36,873 points, increasing its point total from the previous year by 7,013. Irving High School finished 11th with 29,282 points and the Academy placed tenth among the medium schools with a point total of 29,264.

The Nimitz team now looks toward the large schools’ Texas Academic Decathlon, scheduled February 29 through March 2 at Plano West High School in Plano.

“We know that Pearland presents a huge challenge for us, and I know that few people will give us any chance of catching them and winning the state meet,” Jackson said. “But I have faith that all of us will do whatever we can do to be at our best on that weekend.”

Source: IISD

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