After claiming NPHS’s first state championship title in a decade, the North Penn Academic Decathlon team members are getting ready to put on their best suits and ties for the nationals this week in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Merely putting on their “thinking caps,” however, is not nearly enough to prepare for the intensive nature of the competition.

“The team has been working their tails off,” explained Dr.Kathryn Daughton, the team’s advisor who also teaches AP World History and World Cultures Honors. “We meet few times a week and they have intense study sessions at their homes.”

The momentum from the impressive state championship victory has definitely been carried over for the team’s busy preparation for nationals. Not only did the team won at least one medal in every category, which includes essay, speech, interview, math, economics, language & literature, science, art, and music, it was also the first state championship victory in a decade for any school in eastern Pennsylvania.

“Typically [the state championship title] is won by the teams in western PA that have Academic Decathlon as a class, which gives them a really big competitive advantage,” said Daughton.

She proudly praises her team on its efforts: “We have an incredibly strong team. They really are an elite group of students who are truly gifted students; they deserve every accolade that’s coming to them because they have an incredible amount of natural abilities combined with a great work ethic. They’re all in it for each other.”

Good luck to Eddie Bogert,Sam Curlee, Serena Jiang, Nate Lamb, Scott Landes, Patrick Nicodemus, Kris Robinson, Matt Zarenkiewicz, and Jerry Zhao as they travel to Minneapolis this week for the Academic Decathlon nationals!

Click here for a more detailed reporting of the team’s impressive winning record at the Academic Decathlon State Competition.