The AcDec team is heading to state.

They won first place in the regional competition in late January, taking home 60 individual medals as well as the super quiz and sweepstakes awards. They will participate in the state competition in late February.

Academic Decathlon competitions require that each student compete in 10 events that span over two days. These events comprise of Art, Social Science, Math, Economics, Science, Language, Literature, Essay, Speech, and Interview.

The team is separated into three different brackets based on their grade point averages: Honors, Scholastic and Varsity. Junior Vivian Nguyen, and Seniors Rabia Hakeem and Jonathan Yabuki won first place overall in these brackets respectively.

Should the team win first or second place at the state competition, they would then advance to the national competition in Hawaii.

Co-captain Yabuki believes that the team has a shot at going to nationals this year.

“We have more confidence in ourselves this year because last year was the first time we broke top ten and that raised the bar for us this year,” he said.