February 2003 News Archive
Tuesday, February 25. 2003
San Marcos High Aces County’s Academic Decathlon
Each year, the Santa Barbara High School District has made a strong showing in the Academic Decathlon. The decathlon is an interschool competition designed to encourage and involve a cross-section of students at each school site. Student academic categories include Honors (3.75-4.00 GPA), Scholastic (3.00-3.74 GPA), and Varsity (GPAs up to 2.99).
On February 1, 2003, at Arroyo Grande High School in San Luis Obispo County, a 9-member team from San Marcos High School took first place in the Santa Barbara County Academic Decathlon competition. Their closest rival was Dos Pueblos High School. The team now moves on to the California State Academic Decathlon championship in Modesto on March 7-9, 2003. Approximately 450 high school students and 100 coaches will participate in a two-day series of tests, speeches, and interviews focusing on the theme "Understanding the Natural World." Awards will be presented on the third and final day of the event.
The San Marcos win was particularly exciting because their Team I champions are part of a brand new program at that school, which their coach established last year:
- Honors Level – Wayne Feng, Peter DeVore, and Eli Kupperman.
- Scholastic Level – Gustavo Uribe, Eetai Ben-Sasson, and Zack Kass.
- Varsity Level – Nathan Poffenberger, Quicheeta Lowen-Diaz, and Natalie Hernandez.
Their coach is history/English teacher Lawrence Gamble. This is Mr. Gamble’s third year in the District, all three of those years at San Marcos High School. The team’s assistant coach is Elan Bar.
The team amassed 33,748 points in the 10 categories tested: speech, interview, essay, art, economics, music, math, social science, language, and literature. In the individual competition, the following students received first place awards:
- Language and literature: Quicheeta Lowen-Diaz (Varsity) and Eetai Ben-Sasson (Scholastic)
- Art: Quicheeta Lowen-Diaz (Varsity) and Eetai Ben-Sasson (Scholastic)
- Economics: Nathan Poffenberger (Varsity) and Gustavo Uribe (Scholastic)
- Social science: Nathan Poffenberger (Varsity) and Eetai Ben-Sasson (Scholastic)
- Math: Peter DeVore (Honors)
- Music: Quicheeta Lowen-Diaz (Varsity) and Gustavo Uribe (Scholastic)
Recipients of the highest individual scores overall, for all ten events, were:
- Quicheeta Lowen-Diaz (first place, Varsity) and Nathan Poffenberger (third place, Varsity)
- Eetai Ben-Sasson (first place, Scholastic)
- Wayne Feng (second place, Honors)
The varsity team also won the Superquiz competition, which included students from all three levels.
Academic Decathlon students are fundraising for the team’s trip to Modesto for the state competition. Anyone wishing to contribute to the team’s room/board expenses are encouraged to call Lawrence Gamble at San Marcos High School, 967-4581, ext. 309.