Local students win 13 medals in academic decathlon

FALLBROOK – The Fallbrook High School Academic Decathlon Team took first place in the all-volunteer category of the San Diego County Academic Decathlon Competition held at Olympian High School Saturday, Feb. 5. The team also took first overall in mathematics among the 19 participating San Diego County high schools.

Seniors Nik Gerlock, Bo Lundqvist, Adriana Ochoa, and Courtney Bode were the big winners from the ten-student team, combining to bring home a school record 13 medals. Gerlock led the way with an amazing six medals, including a gold in math, two silvers (language and music) and three bronzes (social science, essay, and combined).

Lundqvist, who led the team with an overall score of 5977.1 points, won four medals, including three silvers (essay, essay overall, and improvisation), while Ochoa took silver in language and bronze in interview, and Bode taking silver in math.

The team is split into three categories. Three members each compete in the honors (3.5 GPA or higher), scholastic (3.00-3.49 GPA), and varsity (2.0-2.99 GPA) categories. The tenth team member serves as an alternate. Academic decathlon requires teams to compete in ten different academic areas with a new theme each year. This year’s theme was the Great Depression.

All three of the schools that finished ahead of Fallbrook have for-credit classes as a part of their schools’ curriculum to prepare for the competition. Fallbrook and the other 15 schools met on a voluntary basis out of class to prepare for the competition. Teachers Debbie Berg, Dave Evans, and Tracy Markham are the team coaches. Teacher Dan Nielsen assisted by providing interpretive analysis of the book “Grapes of Wrath.”