A new streak has been started by the Oakdale High School Academic Decathlon team. Proving to once again be the top in the county, the 30-member team was named overall winner for both the Stanislaus County competition as well as the Super Quiz this past weekend.

Twelve area high schools competed on Saturday, Feb. 7 at Johansen High School in Modesto for the 46th Annual Stanislaus County Academic Decathlon. This was the fifth consecutive win for OHS and the 23rd cumulative win for the Mustangs in the 46 years of competition.

The team will now represent Stanislaus County at the California Academic Decathlon State Finals, which will be hosted in late March.

Now in her 11th year of coaching the OHS team, Dee Hawksworth shared she was thrilled not only with the win, but with the overall energy and enthusiasm of this year’s team.

“They are one of the happiest and excited teams I’ve had in a while,” the coach said. “They’ve really bonded well. The seniors and the sophomores really adopted the freshmen and mentored them. It’s just been adorable to watch.”

The topic of study for the 2026 Academic Decathlon was The Roaring Twenties.

The competing team for OHS included: Honors - Brenna Franca, Iyska Rangel and Teagan Malcom; Scholastic - Cristian Cornejo Plascencia, Austin Speiller and Camilla Badger; Varsity - Allison Speiller, Jack Byron and Perla Esquivel Plascencia.

Hawksworth shared this year’s team, as well as the competing team of nine, was comprised of freshmen, sophomores and seniors. The absence of juniors leaves some questions regarding the 2026-27 team, yet the veteran coach shared she’s not worried.

“I think it’s because we’re doing a better job recruiting eighth graders,” she said of the team’s increase in underclassmen.

“The last two years, we’ve been starting with a big group of freshmen. Some of them leave, some of them realize this isn’t for me, but enough of them stay that our numbers have been going up again,” she noted.

With a younger team, Hawksworth admitted that she wasn’t completely confident how they would do overall. She said the team’s excitement and commitment were admirable, yet she still had reservations.

“I had no idea, going into it if they would win,” she confided. “Even though I love the team and I saw how hard they were working and they were getting pretty good scores and I was feeling pretty good. You never know how the other teams are. You just don’t know.”

Yet come Saturday, things began to shift for the coach and as the team took to the public portion of the event, The Super Quiz, she began to think they may just do it again.

“During Super Quiz I started to get a feeling of I think we may have Super Quiz,” she said. “If we have Super Quiz, there’s a good chance we have the other. So that gave me hope.”

As the red shirts dominated the floor of Johansen High School, during the medals ceremony, Hawksworth’s excitement continued to grow. Awaiting the announcement of top teams with anticipation, the OHS decathletes would learn their hard work and dedication to studying had not been in vain.

As the team was announced the roar of the team, as well as the Oakdale fan section, filled the Johansen gymnasium. Oakdale was once again the champions.

Now with 23 trophy wins under their belt, Hawksworth reflected on what she believes attributes to the team’s consistent victories.

“I think part of it is, we have a class,” she said of the seventh period elective taken by the 30-member team. “There are only three schools that have a class. The others have to make do with a club. A class is a big advantage. The other thing is, despite having the class, we still put in the after-school time and the Saturdays.”

And while the commitment of the team remains year after year, Hawksworth shared she feels there is one underlying factor which continues to motivate the students.

“There’s also that thing where the excitement of being on a winning team builds and you don’t want to be the team to blow the streak,” she explained. “Wanting to maintain our current streak, kind of keeps ‘em going, too.”

Be it the streak of the past or the current five-year title run, one fact remains indisputable: Oakdale High School holds the most wins overall in Stanislaus County Academic Decathlon history.