Woodbridge High School won its third straight Orange County Academic Decathlon crown, earning an automatic bid to the California Academic Decathlon in March.
The Irvine Unified School District campus was named overall winner during the OCAD awards ceremony Tuesday evening at Santa Ana High School’s Bill Medley Auditorium.
With the win, Woodbridge collects another plaque and a travel stipend to ensure its members make it to Sacramento for the state-level contest, which will feature powerhouse schools from California’s 38 counties. Last year, Woodbridge finished 13th at the California decathlon.
This year, the overall top five teams in Orange County qualified for the state finals, with teams two through five qualifying as wild cards. The wild card teams earned high enough scores to rank them among the state’s best.
“The fact that we have five teams in the county this year going to the state final shows how intense our local competition is,” said OCDE Coordinator Kristin Rigby. “It is such a exciting opportunity for them to represent their schools and communities at the next round.”
Here’s a breakdown of the top Orange County teams by division with each team’s overall score:
DIVISION 1
- First place: Woodbridge High School, Irvine Unified School District, 59,910.6
- Second place: University High School, Irvine Unified School District, 49,205.2
- Third place: Trabuco Hills High School, Saddleback Valley Unified School District, 46,058.0
- Fourth place: Valencia High School, Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, 45,617.2
- Fifth place: Westminster High School, Huntington Beach Union High School District, 45,061.2
DIVISION 2
- First place: Servite High School, 37,752.1
- Second place: San Juan Hills High School, Capistrano Unified School District, 37,490.7
- Third place: Kennedy High School, Anaheim Union High School District, 37,465.8
- Fourth place: El Dorado High School, Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, 37,408.6
- Fifth place: Aliso Niguel High School, Capistrano Unified School District, 36,380.1
DIVISION 3
- First place: Tesoro High School, Capistrano Unified School District, 36,143.4
- Second place: Segerstrom High School, Santa Ana Unified School District, 33,069.8
- Third place: Savanna High School, Anaheim Union High School District, 31,410.7
- Fourth place: Santiago High School, Garden Grove Unified School District, 29,012.6
- Fifth place: Loara High School, Anaheim Union High School District, 28,201.5
This marks the 51th year of the Academic Decathlon, which was conceived by former Orange County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Peterson. The first decathlon was held at Bolsa Grande High School in 1968.
Today, the event is a big deal pretty much everywhere. In contests staged at the local, county, state and national levels, nine-member teams compete for the most points on multiple-choice exams, speeches, interviews, essay assignments and, of course, the Super Quiz Relay, which is staged in front of a live audience. Each squad must include three “Honor” students (those with GPAs of 3.75 or above), three “Scholastic” students (GPAs of 3.00 to 3.74) and three “Varsity” students (GPAs of 2.99 or below).
This year’s theme was “The 1960s: A Transformational Decade.”
Presented by the Orange County Academic Decathlon Association and OCDE, this year’s decathlon is supported by the contributions of community members and sponsors, including NuVision Federal Credit Union, Del Taco LLC, the Orange County Register, Aeries Software, Frontline Education and Achieve3000.
For more information, visit OCDE’s Academic Decathlon 101 webpage.