LCWM Academic Decathlon Team Places Second in State
and Earns Trip to National Competition
The LCWM Academic Decathlon team placed second overall at the Minnesota state competition held virtually on February 10 and in-person on February 25-27 in Shakopee, MN. Team scores were:
Avalon Team 1 – 33,732.7 points
LCWM – 26,336.5 points
St. Peter – 26,194.2 points
Avalon Team 2 – 17,337.2 points
Hiawatha Collegiate – 10,753.5 points
With LCWM placing second overall in the state, they will represent Minnesota at the national competition to be held virtually April 19-22 as the Division IV (Wild Card) team. The national competition was originally scheduled to be in-person in Pennsylvania this year but was ultimately moved to a virtual competition due to Covid. The team still plans to compete in the Twin Cities area so that the students have a national competition experience. This will be LCWM’s 16th appearance in a national Academic Decathlon competition. Past appearances include California in 1999, Alaska in 2001, Arizona in 2002, the medium school national online competition in 2008, the small school national online competition in 2010 and 2011, New Mexico in 2012, Minnesota in 2013, Hawaii in 2014, and the small school national online competition in 2015, 2016, and 2017, Texas in 2018, and Minnesota in 2019. The 2020 national competition scheduled for Alaska was cancelled completely due to Covid. At the national competition, students will take written exams in art, economics, literature, math, music, science, and social science, present a prepared and impromptu speech, participate in an interview, and write an essay. They will also take part in the Super Quiz Relay which challenges students to answer questions in a head-to-head quiz show format. This year’s curriculum theme is “Water: A Most Essential Resource”. LCWM students will be competing for national medals as well as scholarships.
Members of the LCWM team are:
Honors: Gabe Kietzer, Abby Groos, and Isabelle Wawrzynaik;
Scholastic: Christian Fells, Levi Lantz, and Abigail Buffington;
Varsity: Logan Anderson, Ethan Grannis, and Joshua Vogel.
Team coach is Billy James.
Team members earned 23 medals at the state competition. Earning medals were:
* Isabelle Wawrzynaik (honors): first in interview.
* Gabe Kietzer (honors): third in math.
* Christian Fells (scholastic): second in literature, first in math, first in social science, second in science, first in music, and first overall.
* Abigail Buffington (scholastic): third in art, third in music, second in interview.
* Levi Lantz (scholastic): third in science and third in economics.
* Ethan Grannis (varsity): third in math, third in music, third in economics, first in interview, and third in essay.
* Joshua Vogel (varsity): first in math and second in economics.
* Logan Anderson (varsity): third in music, first in economics, and third in speech.
The team’s highest scoring students in each division were: Isabelle Wawrzynaik (honors) with 4,811.9 points, Christian Fells (scholastic) with 5,153.6 points, and Ethan Grannis (varsity) with 3,942.7 points. Christian Fells had the highest medal count at 6 medals.
There were a total of 8 individual state championships earned by LCWM students. These students were Christian Fells (4), Logan Anderson (1), Ethan Grannis (1), Joshua Vogel (1), and Isabelle Wawrzynaik (1).
Three students were selected by their judges from all of the state participants to present their speeches during the “Speech Showcase” event at the state banquet. LCWM had one student in the Speech Showcase. Christian Fells presented his speech about “Legos” to the entire state banquet audience.
The team wishes to thank parents, teachers, administrators, and the community for the continued support and interest in the program. Special thanks go to Sue Ehlers, Mark Westerburg, Natalie Teigum, Alex Keilen, and Tracy Meadows for their help in preparing the students for competition.
