TOWAMENCIN – Anchorage, Alaska is about 3,550 miles by air from the Lansdale area. But this weekend, North Penn High School’s Academic Decathlon team took one giant step closer to that ultimate destination by winning the 2016 Easter Pennsylvania Academic Decathlon Championship. For North Penn, it is their 7th consecutive Regional title and included 41,353 points, 45 individual medals, and 5 all- state high scoring medal winners.
North Penn took 1st place for the 7th year in row with an overall score of 41,353 with 45 individual medals and 5 ALL – STATE high scoring medal winners.

Here are the complete results for North Penn’s medal winners:

In the Honors division:
Cathy Yang was named “All State” for the overall Highest score of 8405 as well 6 medals in Music, Essay, Literature, Science, Social Science and Art.
Yang Yue was “ALL State” and won 6 medals in Economics, Mathematics, Literature, Art, Economics and Social Science.
Connie Jiang won 3 medals in Speech, Music and Science.

In the Scholastic Division:
Parth Nigam was “ALL STATE” and won 8 medals in Math, Music, Literature, Social Science, Essay, Speech, Literature and Art.
Saf Rahman was “ALL STATE” and won 5 medals in Music, Art, Literature Essay and Social Science.
Chirag Bhatia won 6 medals in Economics, Music, Economics, Speech, Interview and Social Science.

In the Varsity Division:
Justin Orefice was “ALL STATE” and won 8 medals in Economics, Literature, Art, Science, Social Science, Music, Interview and Math
Dan Sibel won 2 medals in Economics and Speech.
Joe Donatucci medalled in Essay.

Phil Cerami, EPAD Regional Director, sent a message of good luck to all teams in which he included some of the history of Academic Decathlon. “The history of The Academic Decathlon began in 1967 in Orange County, California, as the idea of Dr. Robert Peterson. He envisioned a national competition involving students of all levels of academic ability in a wide range of content areas. In 1978, the Decathlon spread across California and by the early 1980’s became a national event.”

In an Academic Decathlon competition, teams compete in a series of ten events measuring academic strengths, including written tests in Language and Literature, Mathematics, Art, Music, Social Science, Economics and Science. Students must write an essay, be interviewed by a panel of judges, and give a four-minute prepared speech and a two-minute impromptu speech. Each member of the team competes in the Super Quiz – a public sample of the Academic Decathlon.

A team consists of nine members, three from the Honor category with an “A” average, three from the Scholastic or with a “B” average, and three from the Varsity or with a “C” and below average GPA category. Team scores are based on the highest two students in each category.

North Penn, by virtue of this weekend’s results, will advance to the Pennsylvania Academic Decathlon State Championships on March 11-12 at Penn State University. Approximately 35 schools will be competing statewide. The winning team at states will earn the right to represent Pennsylvania at the USAD National Finals in April in Anchorage, Alaska.

North Penn won last year’s Eastern PA Academic Decathlon and was also the Pennsylvania Academic Decathlon State Champion, for the third year in a row.