The Souderton Area HS Academic Decathlon are state champions, again! 

This past weekend, on March 2-4, students from across Pennsylvania competed in the 39th annual Pennsylvania Academic Decathlon, held at Thiel College. Souderton was victorious over 12 other district champions and wild card teams, and they now advance to the United States Academic Decathlon National Finals being held in Frisco, TX in late April.  Students competed in ten events – essay, speech, interview, math, music, literature, science, social science, art, and economics, in nine-member teams composed of three honors or “A” students, three scholastic or “B” students, and three varsity or “C” students, forcing teams to work together across different ability levels to learn the same content.

The subjects this year were centered on a theme – The American Revolution. 6 of the 9 members of the PA All-State Team were Souderton students, which is a Souderton program high.  Souderton scored 43,120 out of 60,000 possible points, beating 2nd place and defending state champion Seneca Valley High School by 3,675 points. Souderton has been competing in the Academic Decathlon since 2013 and has won 5 regional titles and 3 state titles in that time. The
team is coached by Computer Science teacher Phil Cerami, mathematics teacher Carolyn Scott, and French teacher Sally Cushmore.

Team Results
1st SOUDERTON AREA HS 43,120
2nd SENECA VALLEY HS 39,443
3rd MCDOWELL HS 35,595
4th MONITEAU HS 35,094
5th NW PA COLLEGIATE ACADEMY 34,361
6th METHACTON HS 32,950
7th MONTOURSVILLE HS 32,368
8th CARLISLE HS 31,990
9th NORTH CLARION HS 31,042
10th PENNS VALLEY HS 30,873
11th PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA HS 29,629
12th BELLEFONTE HS 28,428
13th CLARION-LIMESTONE HS 28,380

PA All-State Team
HONORS (4.0-3.80)
  GOLD: SEBASTIAN LIU, NW PA COLLEGIATE ACADEMY, 8,045
  SILVER: MARCUS SMITH, SOUDERTON AREA HS, 8,025
  BRONZE: PARTH PARIKH, MCDOWELL HS, 7,926
SCHOLASTIC (3.79-3.2)
  GOLD: SHANE RAAB, SOUDERTON AREA HS, 7,211
  SILVER: NOLAN HUGHES, SOUDERTON AREA HS, 6,865
  BRONZE: NANCY CHEN, SENECA VALLEY HS, 6,393
VARSITY (3.19-0.0)
  GOLD: ANDY CRUZ, SOUDERTON AREA HS, 7,219
  SILVER: JOSH UBELE, SOUDERTON AREA HS, 6,524
  BRONZE: GABE SMOLA, SOUDERTON AREA HS, 6,292

INDIVIDUAL MEDALS – SOUDERTON AREA HS
Honors Division (3.8-4.0)
Marcus Smith – All-State Team, Gold in Music, Art, Literature, Social Science, Silver in Economics
Ashley Caputo – Silver in Science, Speech
Kyle Berdy – Gold in Science
Scholastic Division (3.2-3.8)
Shane Raab – All-State Team, Gold in Music, Art, Social Science, Silver in Economics, Bronze in Essay, Science
Nolan Hughes – All-State Team, Gold in Science, Math, Silver in Music
El Ross – Gold in Literature, Silver in Art, Bronze in Music, Economics
Varsity Division (0.0-3.2)
Andy Cruz – All-State Team, Gold in Music, Art, Literature, Interview, Silver in Economics, Science, Speech, Bronze in Math, Social Science
Josh Ubele – All-State Team, Gold in Essay, Art, Interview, Silver in Music, Bronze in Economics, Speech, Bronze in Social Science
Gabe Smola – All-State Team, Gold in Economics, Science, Math, Bronze in Literature, Speech