This year’s Diocesan Junior High Academic Decathlon was held on March 2 and for the second straight year St. Margaret Mary School took first place. St. Edward School, Corona placed second while Sacred Heart School, Palm Desert took third.
“We believe we’re speaking for the whole team when we say we were ecstatic for our win,” said St. Margaret Mary team captains. “All of our hard work paid off in the end and placing first felt justly earned. We all put our efforts toward equally contributing to the team and strengthening our cooperation since the previous year. Overall, we were happy we got to bring home another trophy for our school.”
The desire to place for the second year in a row played a role in the team’s success says Principal Waylynn Senn.
“The captains of the team have been in the Decathlon Team since they were in sixth grade,” Senn said. “They saw how we took first last year and wanted to repeat that again. They studied really hard and worked well as a team. Each and every one of them wanted to place first overall.”
Below is the full student list of first, second and third placements in individual subjects and team events:
Current Events
1st Miguel Gaitan, St. Margaret Mary - Team Red
2nd Alina Landin, Our Lady of the Assumption
3rd Nathan Sales, Sacred Heart Academy - Team Red
English
1st Lili Segura, Our Lady of the Assumption
2nd Kathryn Colinayo, St. Edward
3rd Abigail Hernandez, St. Joseph - Team Gold
Fine Arts
1st Lucrecia Estrada, Our Lady of the Assumption
2nd Paulene Bulandos, St. Edward
3rd Francis Dominguez, St. Margaret Mary - Team Red
Literature
1st Alexandra Hauschild, Sacred Heart Academy - Team White
2nd Angela Khaili-Borna, St. Margaret Mary - Team Black
3rd Emme Montecino, Our Lady of the Assumption
Math
1st Keira Joy Lopez, St. Margaret Mary - Team Black
2nd Jeongyun Shin, St. Edward
3rd Nikhil Fayssoux, Sacred Heart, Palm Desert
Religion
1st Efren Montenegro, St. Joseph - Team Gold
2nd Victoria Hernandez, St. Margaret Mary - Team Black
3rd Aliyah Escobedo, Sacred Heart, Palm Desert
Science
1st Karol Gaytan, Sacred Heart Academy - Team Red
2nd Bristol Gonzalez, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Riverside
3rd Ifeanyi Offor St. Edward
Social Studies
1st Malinalli Avila, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Riverside
2nd Gabriella Cornelio, St. Edward
3rd Mikel Urrutia, St. Margaret Mary - Team Black
Team Events
Logic
1st St. Margaret Mary - Team Black
2nd Sacred Heart, Palm Desert
3rd Our Lady of the Assumption
Super Quiz
1st St. Margaret Mary - Team Black
2nd St. Edward
3rd Sacred Heart Academy - Team Red
Overall
1st St. Margaret Mary - Team Black
2nd St. Edward
3rd Sacred Heart ,Palm Desert
St. Margaret Mary also represented the Diocese in the virtual national competition on March 15th. Individual decathletes from OLPH Riverside, Our Lady of the Assumption, Sacred Heart Academy, and St. Joseph also joined the national competition for individual subjects.
“Our team did amazing at Nationals,” Senn said. “There were 19 teams competing, we placed 4th in Logic, 8th in Super Quiz and placed 7th overall. Really proud of our Decathlon Team!”