Students come from all over the country to compete at the 2016 USAD National Academic Pentathlon at Boise State University, but it was a couple of Orange County teams that took home the top spots.
The eighth-grade team from Fairmont Private Schools‘ Historic Anaheim Campus won the national championship at the May 21 competition, and the seventh-grade team came in second.
Teams can additionally win awards in the Overall and Super Quiz categories, and both Fairmont teams won first place for their respective grade levels.
Then you have individual medals in each category, including top overall student, and you guessed it, Fairmont was tops again.
Individually, Fairmont students won 11 of the possible 18 total individual overall medals, five of six being gold. Jian Park of the seventh-grade team finished with the highest individual score out of all competitors. Within the subject categories, the eighth-grade team won 22 medals out of a possible 45, including 12 gold out of a possible 15. The seventh-grade team won 30 medals in the subject categories, with 11 being gold.
The competition’s areas of concentration are language and literature, fine arts, science, mathematics and social science. Academic pentathlon teams comprise students in three different grade-point average categories: Honor (those with GPAs of 3.75 or above), Scholastic (GPAs of 3.00 to 3.74) and Varsity (GPAs or 2.99 or below). These categories ensure all students have an opportunity to compete.
Only two teams are invited to the national competition from each state. This year, both of California’s teams were from Fairmont.