ROYERSFORD, PA – The Souderton Area High School Academic Decathlon are state champions, once again.

This past weekend, on March 14-15, students from across Pennsylvania competed in the 41st annual Pennsylvania Academic Decathlon State Championship, held at Pope John Paul II High School. Souderton Area High School was victorious over 14 other district champions and wild card teams, and they now advance to the United States Academic Decathlon National Finals being held in Des Moines, IA 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 – Our Changing Climate. 4 of the 9 members of the PA All-State Team were Souderton students: Trina Nguyen and Aaron Im in the Scholastic Division, and Ahsan Rahman and Giovanni Iervolino in the Honors Division, with Iervolino having the highest score in
the entire competition and winning the title of Individual PA State Champion with 8,943 points out of a possible 10,000.

Souderton scored 43,820 out of 60,000 possible points, beating 2nd place and defending state champion Seneca Valley High School by 394 points. Souderton has been competing in the Academic Decathlon since 2013 and has won 7 regional titles and 4 state titles in that time.

Members of the state championship team: Seniors Giovanni Iervolino, Ahsan Rahman, and Henry Dang in the Honors Division, Aaron Im, Trina Nguyen, and Maddy Zhang in the Scholastic Division, and Nate Soucier, Gideon Pham, and Jaden Nguyen in the Varsity Division.
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 43,820
2nd SENECA VALLEY HS 43,426
3rd MCDOWELL HS 40,238
4th NW PA COLLEGIATE ACADEMY 38,197
5th CLARION-LIMESTONE HS 36,538
6th METHACTON HS 35,370
7th CARLISLE HS 35,072
8th NORTH PENN HS 34,559
9th PENNS VALLEY HS 34,393
10th NORTH CLARION HS 31,678
11th PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA HS 30,423
12th MONTOURSVILLE HS 30,210
13th POPE JOHN PAUL II HS 30,028
14th SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT HS 28,233
15th MONITEAU HS 27,987
 
PA All-State Team
 
HONORS (4.0-3.80)
GOLD GIOVANNI IERVOLINO SOUDERTON AREA HS 8,943
SILVER SUMEYRA TURGUNBEVA MCDOWELL HS 8,475
BRONZE AHSAN RAHMAN SOUDERTON AREA HS 8,387
 
SCHOLASTIC (3.79-3.2)
GOLD ROHIN JAYARAMAN SENECA VALLEY HS 8,428
SILVER AARON IM SOUDERTON AREA HS 7,869
BRONZE TRINA NGUYEN SOUDERTON AREA HS 7,637
 
VARSITY (3.19-0.0)
GOLD MICHAEL KRAVEC SENECA VALLEY HS 6,494
SILVER SARAH GHAFFAR SENECA VALLEY HS 6,458
BRONZE GAVIN CRESS SENECA VALLEY HS 6,069

INDIVIDUAL MEDALS – SOUDERTON AREA HS
Honors Division (3.8-4.0)
Giovanni Iervolino - Individual State Champion, All-State Team, Gold in Art, Social Science, Science, Economics, Silver in Math, Interview, Bronze in Music, Literature, Essay
Ahsan Rahman - All-State Team, Silver in Art, Economics, Literature, Bronze in Social Science, Math
Henry Dang - Gold in Music, Social Science, Essay, Silver in Interview, Bronze in Economics

Scholastic Division (3.2-3.8)
Aaron Im - All-State Team, Gold in Art, Silver in Social Science, Economics, Science, Essay, Speech
Trina Nguyen - All-State Team, Gold in Art, Silver in Science, Economics, Bronze in Music, Literature, Social Science
Maddy Zhang - Gold in Economics, Silver in Art, Interview, Bronze in Speech

Varsity Division (0.0-3.2)
Nate Soucier - Bronze in Social Science, Essay