The Woodbridge High Academic Decathlon team placed 1st overall out of 33 high schools in the 57th annual Orange County Academic Decathlon competition, four-peating, and capturing our 8th OC Championship in the last 9 years! (we finished 2nd to Uni in the modified/virtual hybrid-year season as the only roadblock to 9 in a row).
We are especially proud of this team as we lost 5 seniors from last year's championship team. With only three returning team members with AcaDeca experience and increasing competition around the county, we expected a close competition this year. Fortunately, the students took on the challenge of four-peating and defended our championship by the narrowest margin we’ve had in years. If you see any of the students below, please congratulate them on an amazing achievement.
More details:
This year’s team consisted of 8 students and 4 alternates, and they competed in a series of 10 academic events, ranging from mathematics and social science to speech and interview on this year’s competition theme of: Our Changing Climate.
The team has been preparing relentlessly since last June, meeting after school, on weekends, throughout Summer and Winter Breaks, putting in several hundred hours of preparation outside of the school day. Through the course of the year, the team bonded, worked hard, and committed to each other and the program, demonstrating the grit and resolve to four-peat as champions.
Their success is an incredible testament to the discipline, dedication, and maturity of this great group of kids, most of whom had never participated in AcaDeca before. They represented themselves and the school with pride and have furthered the proud legacy of OCAD at Woodbridge.
This year our team members are:
- Seniors: Justine Chen, Will Bentley, Andrei Fedotov
- Juniors: Henry Robbins, Elijah Wilson, Shandi Chen, Andrew Chen, Caroline Robbins
- Sophomores: Jazz Chang, Phil Duan, Joseph Zhang
- Freshman: Yun Jen Yeh
All of our team members performed exceptionally well, achieved personal and team goals, and won, in total over 60 individual medals and over $4000 in individual scholarship money.
Of special note, several of our team members were at the top of the entire competition for their overall performances and received numerous individual accolades and generous financial scholarships:
“Varsity GPA Category”
Phil Duan placed 3rd overall in the entire county for this GPA category and earned $700
Will Bentley placed 2nd overall in the entire county for this GPA category and earned $800
“Scholastic GPA Category”
Andrew Chen placed 8th overall in the entire county for this GPA category and earned $100
“Honors GPA Category”
Joseph Zhang had the 10th highest score in the entire competition and earned $100
Caroline Robbins had the 9th highest score in the entire competition and earned $100
Yun Jen Yeh had the 7th highest score in the entire competition and earned $100
Eli Wilson had the 3rd highest score in the entire competition and earned $700
Shandi Chen had the 2nd highest score in the entire competition and earned $800
Henry Robbins had the HIGHEST score in the entire competition and earned $1000
Overall, Woodbridge claimed the Top 3 highest scores in the county, and 6 of the Top 10 highest scores in the county!
With our OC Championship, Woodbridge will represent Orange County at the CAD State Competition for the 14th consecutive year, along with 3 other OC Schools that qualified as at-large teams, who finished the OC competition in this order:
1: Woodbridge
2: Valencia
3: University
4: Westminster
This year's CAD State Competition will be in Santa Clara, and it will be an exciting opportunity for the team, as only one of the current team members has experienced the competition and camaraderie with the greatest decathletes from all over California!
Heading into the California Academic Decathlon State Competition in March, we have high goals and expectations for the state competition, and the students are looking forward to improving upon their county scores and finishing in the Top 5 in California.
If you see these students, please congratulate them for their incredible hard work and dedication and wish them luck as they compete at the state level in March!