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The competition took place at Clear Lake High School's Marge Alakszay Center in Lakeport.
Competitors included Middletown High, Clear Lake High, Upper Lake High and Lower Lake High.
Academic Decathletes competed in several categories including English and literature, fine arts, mathematics, physical and biological sciences, and social science.
Upper Lake's team won first place, with Lower Lake High School – last year's winner – placing second, reported Robert Riggs, who attended the Saturday event.
Lake County Superintendent of Schools Dave Geck presided over the Saturday competition, Riggs reported.
The pivotal part of every Academic Decathlon competition is the Super Quiz. This year the Super Quiz focused on the Civil War, with Lake County Board of Education Vice President Dr. Mark Cooper reading the questions.
Lower Lake High won the Super Quiz, but Upper Lake led by enough of a margin to keep its hold on the gold.
In a snapshot of competition winners, Kate Lyons of Lower Lake won the gold medal in the Honors division (3.75 grade point average and above), Robin Grayhorse of Upper Lake won the gold medal in the Scholastic division (3.0 to 3.74 GPA) and Robert Pyle of Upper Lake won the gold medal in the Varsity division (2.99 GPA and below).
Upper Lake's win puts it on course to return to the state Academic Decathlon competition, scheduled for March 7 through 10 in Sacramento. The March competition will be held at three different venues: California State University, Sacramento; the Hyatt Regency; and Sacramento Memorial Auditorium.
Upper Lake High School had been Lake County's Academic Decathlon juggernaut for eight straight years until the 2007 win by Lower Lake High.
In 2004 Upper Lake High won the state Academic Decathlon Division 3 championship.
Team rosters for Saturday included:
Upper Lake High School ( Coach, Tina Moore)
Honor – Daniella Cazares, Kyle Coleman and Marisa Garcia;
Scholastic – Robin Grayhorse, Hannah Johnson and Jonathan Philpott;
Varsity – Robert Pyle, Corey Smith and Maria Mendoza;
Alternates – Stephanie Tregea, Belarmino Garcia, Laura Benavides, Lisa Benavides, Chae Carter, Luis Cazares and Thonyoon Chao.
Lower Lake High School (Coach, Nancy Harby)
Honor – Kate Lyons, Daniel Jackson and Emmalena Illia;
Scholastic – Kayla Myrick, Joe Riggs and Joshua Salazar;
Varsity – Chris Ingersoll, Jacob Sanders and Gerald Skinner;
Alternates – Ryan Wilson, Alexandra Huff, Sean Grant and Jeremy Montano.
Clear Lake High School (Coach, Jim Rogers)
Honor – Isabel Gregorio, Diego Bernardino and Matt Stegman;
Scholastic – Kathryn Frazell, Tiffany Frazell and Enrique Villanueva;
Varsity – Zane Butler, Robert Brown and Kyana Emmot;
Alternates – Garrett Schofield, Ally Hauptman and Kassandranne Richards.
Middletown High School (Coaches, Patty Jimenez and Jennifer Pyzer)
Honor – Elise Zolczynski, Joseph Rebolledo and Cynthia Pimentel;
Scholastic – Johnathan Bateman and William Oertel;
Varsity – Jeremy Hoskins, Aaron Turner and Daniel Renninger III.
A full report, with a complete list of winning students and teams, will follow early next week when the results are officially tallied by the Lake County Office of Education.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
‘Un-Mooned’? Is there such a word in our language? Probably not. But in Lake County Skies, the full Moon, visible during the evening of the 20th, will slowly disappear, and then reappear.
That will happen because there is a total eclipse of the Moon that evening. Our star chart shows where this will occur – notice that the Moon will be close to the planet Saturn.
Notice in the animation that the Moon does not completely disappear. When the eclipse is full, you can still see the Moon, although it is much dimmer than normal.
When will this happen? Here’s a diagram from NASA that shows the times when different events during the eclipse will occur.
What causes an eclipse? It happens when the earth is between the sun and moon, and the three objects line up to where the earth’s shadow is cast upon the lunar surface. The following diagram shows this.
If the Moon is completely within the earth’s shadow, it’s a total eclipse. But if it’s in only a portion of the earth’s shadow, it’s a partial eclipse.
An eclipse of the moon happens at least twice a year, but the next total eclipse won’t happen until 2010.
Speaking of the Moon, Native Americans had names for the full Moon in each month to help identify the seasons. Some of these names, from the Algonquin tribes in the eastern US, were: Full Wolf Moon (January), Full Snow Moon (February), Full Worm Moon (March) and Full Pink Moon (April).
Aside from the lunar eclipse being the star of February’s celestial show, the planets Mars and Saturn are visible, as shown on our star chart. The constellation of Leo the Lion is rising in the east, and Ursa Major (the Big Bear), which contains the Big Dipper, is again becoming visible.
For more information about astronomy and local astronomy-related events, visit the Taylor Observatory website at www.taylorobservatory.org.
On Feb. 9, starting at 8 p.m., the observatory will be open to the public. The topic for the evening is “From Stonehenge to Hubble,” a presentation that traces the history of astronomy.
John Zimmerman has been an amateur astronomer for 50 years. He is a member of the Taylor Observatory staff, where, among his many duties, he helps create planetarium shows.
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
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