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By Abby Davidson 

The weekend of March 2 – 4 the Academic Decathlon team competed at state held in Fort Dodge.  Academic Decathlon is a series of standardized tests, speech skills, and essay writing.

Our school’s academic decathlon hasn’t made it to state in four years because not enough people joined to form a complete team, but this year’s team pulled through and made it. It wasn’t easy finding people to join the team, and some joined later than others but still contributed to the team.

Juniors Rachel Lochner (scholastic) and Emma Walsh (honors) got third place in interviewing and Gunnar Hageman (scholastic) got third in economics and math. Jeremy Ferguson, junior, got first place in speech in the honors group.

“State brought us together as a team,” said junior Abigail Patten.

It wasn’t all about competition while the team was away. Some of the team spent time together in the pool, worked out together, got dinner at Pancheros, and other activities that could bring everyone together. They met people from other schools, but that didn’t distract them from the competition.  And now they’re ready to come back and prove themselves next year.

“We made it to state this year out of pure luck but next year we will be more prepared,” junior Rachel Lochner said.