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Mustangs Again Reign: Champions Of Aca Dec
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The Oakdale High School 2019-2020 Academic Decathlon team was once again named Stanislaus County Champions on Saturday at the annual Stanislaus County Academic Decathlon. This marks the 18th time the OHS Team has brought the trophy home to the school trophy case. Photo Contributed

The trophy is back.

Almost as if a twist of fate or perhaps an even year versus odd, Oakdale High School’s Aca Dec team was once again named the champion, taking the top spot at the 40th annual Stanislaus County Academic Decathlon on Saturday, Feb. 1.

It is the 18th year in which OHS has earned the distinguished title and brought the trophy back to the 95361. The most win of any high school within the county, followed by Modesto High School with 10 wins.

The Super Quiz title, which Oakdale owned last year, went to last year’s overall event winner, Hughson High School this year, as Oakdale placed second in that event.

“The two years that we got second place, one year it wasn’t a surprise to me,” Coach Dee Hawksworth said of the team’s history. “They hadn’t worked hard enough. The other year, I thought well maybe but it didn’t happen. This year I felt like, they’ve worked as hard as they could possibly work. So I felt really good about it.”

In addition to the overall win, the team brought home a total of 57 individual medals, as well as two individual acknowledgements given to Cael Black for First Place Honors Champion and Tayler Downing as First Place Scholastic Champion.

“I was thrilled, beyond thrilled,” Cael said of the overall honors win. “I put a lot of work into it so I was happy to see it pay off.”

One of the quieter, as well as seasoned members of the team, Tayler took the win a bit differently than Cael.

“I was overwhelmed,” Tayler admitted regarding hearing her name called as the Scholastic Champion. “That was astonishing. I was not expecting myself to get that.”

Tayler went home with a total of nine individual medals, Cael collected eight. Of the 57 medals collected, 11 were earned by alternates, a number which Hawksworth shared she was pleasantly surprised by.

“Considering that all of them but one are freshman and sophomores, they did really good,” she said. “They’re competing against juniors and seniors.”

As for the competing team consisting of: Honors - Cael Black, Cesar Garcia Santana and Johanna Fabian; Scholastic - Tayler Downing, Alana Casey and Caroline Krum and Varsity - John Creech, Daphnie Rushing and Lance Bryant, Hawksworth was very pleased.

“I was delighted to see them placing in subjects that they thought were hard,” the coach said, “which proved their perseverance paid off.”

For incoming competing team freshmen, Johanna, Alana and Daphnie the experience could be described as both nerve wracking and overwhelming.

“They called me up and it just felt really great to see that sea of red just raise up and it was just really great to feel that,” Alana said of her first place win in Art.

And now that it all has sunk in, the team has a bit more studying to do. As a result of their championship effort, the competing team will now travel to Sacramento in late March to represent Stanislaus County in the State Competition.

Awards were given in the following areas:

Top Score for Essay: Caroline Krum, Scholastic Bronze.

Top Score for Speech: Cael Black, Honors Fourth Place; Tayler Downing, Scholastic Bronze; Caroline Krum, Scholastic Fourth Place.

Top Score for Interview: Tayler Downing, Scholastic Gold; Alana Casey, Scholastic Bronze.

Top Score Mathematics: Cael Black, Honors Silver; Caroline Krum, Scholastic Bronze.

Top Score Economics: Cael Black, Honors Gold; Johanna Fabian, Honors Silver; Cesar Garcia Santana, Honors Fifth Place; Tayler Downing, Scholastic Silver; John Creech, Varsity Fourth Place; Daphnie Rushing, Varsity Fourth Place; Lance Bryant, Varsity Fifth Place; Daniela Lopez, Alternate Fifth Place; Sandra Duran, Alternate Fifth Place.

Top Score Social Science: Cael Black, Honors Silver; Tayler Downing, Scholastic Silver; Alana Casey, Scholastic Fourth Place; John Creech, Varsity Gold.

Top Score Language and Literature: Cael Black, Honors Silver; Tayler Downing, Scholastic Gold; Alana Casey, Scholastic Silver; Daphnie Rushing, Varsity Bronze; John Creech, Varsity Fifth Place; Micah Kakuno, Alternate Gold; Mateo Zepeda, Alternate Fourth Place; Teryn Holcomb, Alternate Fifth Place.

Top Score Art: Cael Black, Honors Gold; Cesar Garcia Santana, Honors Silver; Johanna Fabian, Honors Fifth Place; Alana Casey, Scholastic Gold; Tayler Downing, Scholastic Bronze; John Creech, Varsity Gold; Daphnie Rushing, Varsity Silver; Micah Kakuno, Alternate Silver; Jackson Hammond, Alternate Fifth Place.

Top Score Music: Cael Black, Honors Silver; Cesar Garcia Santana, Honors Silver; Tayler Downing, Scholastic Silver; Alana Casey, Scholastic Bronze; Caroline Krum, Scholastic Fifth Place; Daphnie Rushing, Varsity Silver; John Creech, Varsity Bronze; Lance Bryant, Varsity Fifth Place; Micah Kakuno, Alternate Gold; Rachelle Muhareb, Alternate Bronze; Mateo Zepeda, Alternate Bronze.

Top Score Science: Cael Black, Honors Silver; Alana Casey, Scholastic Bronze; Caroline Krum, Scholastic Fourth Place; Lance Bryant, Varsity Bronze; Daphnie Rushing, Varsity Fifth Place; Teryn Holcomb, Alternate Fifth Place.

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Students in the stands of Johansen High School quickly erupted onto the floor Saturday as the announcement was made that Oakdale High School had once again been named champion of the Academic Decathlon. Teresa Hammond/The Leader
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Tayler Downing cheers for teammate Alana Casey (off camera) as she collects a second place medal in Literature, leaving Tayler to collect First Place. Teresa Hammond/The Leader