Frontier High School received the Claude W. Richardson perpetual trophy as the overall team winner of the 44th annual Kern County Academic Decathlon, which concluded today at Stockdale High School. 115 students from 13 high schools participated. Frontier will represent Kern County in the California Academic Decathlon scheduled for next month.
Rounding out the top five teams were:
Second place – Stockdale
Third place – West
Fourth place – Independence
Fifth place – Arvin
Stockdale took home first in the Super Quiz and second in the Academic Decathlon.
Academic Decathlon is made up of ten events including Art, Economics, Essay, Interview, Language and Literature, Mathematics, Music, Science, Social Science, and Speech, plus a Super Quiz. The majority of the subjects were contested on January 29, 2025. Today’s contest featured the final two in-person categories — the speech competition and the Super Quiz.
The Super Quiz is a pressure-packed 90-minutes of excitement, run like a TV quiz show. Team members have ten seconds to collaborate and answer each question. Running totals are displayed on large, visible flip cards, bringing about enthusiastic reactions from the audience.
Each school’s team consisted of a maximum of nine students: three “A” (honor), three “B” (scholastic) and three “C” (varsity) entrants. They competed against other students in the same category. The team compiling the most points captured first place. Individual medals were also awarded to first, second and third place finishers in each category and division. The first place winner also took home the Milo Hall Trophy.
Super Quiz Winner:
Stockdale High School
Overall individual top scores in this year’s Academic Decathlon went to:
Honors Division
1st place – Abbett Monte De Ramos
2nd place – Ben Maberry
3rd place – Brayden Freeland
Scholastic Division
1st place – Normanley Diaz
2nd place – Nataly Hernandez
3rd place – Japji Sawhney
Varsity Division
1st place – Olivia Ussery
2nd place – Brooklyn Weston
3rd place – Gianna Barrica
Abbett Monte De Ramos was also awarded the 7K club bronze pin, an award given by the California Academic Decathlon Alumni Association, for a total score of over 7,000 points.
Super Quiz Varsity Division.
By Robert Meszaros
Rob Meszaros is Director of Communications for the Kern County Superintendent of Schools, where he has served since 2012. In his role, Meszaros oversees media relations, internal and external communication strategies, publications, Marcom, branding, and multi-media content creation. Before joining KCSOS, Meszaros was the PIO for CSU Bakersfield and earlier worked for seven years at The Bakersfield Californian.