MUHSD students shined at the 45th Annual Merced County Academic Decathlon, which was held downtown on Saturday and hosted by the Merced County Office of Education. Merced High emerged as the top-scoring team and will advance to the State Academic Decathlon  in Santa Clara in March.

Teams from high schools across Merced County participated in the academic decathlon, which challenged students’ knowledge and skills in math, science, social science, music, art, economics, literature, public speaking, interviews and essays. The 10 high schools that were represented by teams at the competition were Atwater, Buhach Colony, Delhi, El Capitan, Golden Valley, Hilmar, Livingston, Los Banos, Merced and Pacheco.

Students were recognized for their participation in the competition both individually and as a team. Merced High Rishabh Saha was the top-scoring student for the second year in a row. Saha won the gold medal in the honors division for art, economics, essay, literature, mathematics, music, science and social science. Saha received a perfect score in literature.

Merced High’s academic decathlon team was composed of Saha, Maricruz Olmos-Aguayo, Anika Gopinathan, Lawrence Ye, Sophie Hoie, Ricardo Navarro, Nicholas, Roussos, Timothy Modafferi and Sol Flores-Merino. Merced High’s coach is Yer Lawson. It’s Merced High’s 21st time winning the competition since it started in 1982.

Golden Valley’s team earned silver medals for finishing in second and Buhach Colony’s team took home bronze medals for their third-place finish.

Each team awarded Robert Wayne Scholarships for the top three individual scorers. Those MUHSD scholarship recipients were for Atwater High: Azzie Perez Botello ($250), Maxwell Hill ($250) and Cesar Torres-Gimaldo ($500); Buhach Colony: Hannah De Neveu ($250), Zuyeily Zepeda-Robles ($250) and Josh De Neveu ($500); El Capitan: Jasmine Barn ($250), Anushka Elwin ($250) and Alomah Kouadio ($500); Golden Valley: Reese Richards ($250), Estrella Gonzalez-Preciado ($250), Moise Gonzalez-Urbano ($500); Livingston: Taranveer Sigh ($250), Angelo Escamilla ($250), Saniya Claire ($500) and Merced: Lawrence Yo ($250), Nicholas Roussos ($250) and Rishabh Saha ($500). Saha also won a $300 scholarship as the overall top-scoring student.

Ten MUHSD students also received the four-year scholar medal for participating in the academic decathlon for their school for all four years. There were Tayven Tipler (Buhach Colony), Alondra Estrada-Cervantes (GV), Estrella Gonzalez-Preciado (GV), Moise Gonzalez-Ubrano (GV), Lilly Lakireddy (GV), Nishtha Patel (GV), Reese Richards (GV), Anish Medini (El Capitan), Leanna-Garcia Crespon (Merced) and Koy Wicker (Merced).

Shawn Jansen is the MUSHD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.