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The Ramapo High School community is beaming with pride as the Academic Decathlon team secured a Third Place finish at last week’s regional competition. This impressive performance has earned the team a spot in the upcoming state competition, scheduled for February 28th.
The team’s success was bolstered by an incredible showing at Wednesday’s Awards Ceremony, where several students were recognized for their individual academic excellence across multiple disciplines:
- Claire James (Junior): Earned Gold medals in Language/Literature and Interview, a Silver in Art, a Bronze in Math, and an Honorable Mention in Essay. Claire was also the highest-scoring Varsity level player on the team.
- Elle Guarracino (Junior): Awarded a Gold medal in Art and a Silver in Math, while achieving the highest score for a Scholastic level player on the team.
- Robbie Tanis (Junior): Secured Gold medals in both Essay and Interview, along with a Bronze medal in Speech.
- Kalina Piela (Junior): Won Gold medals in both Math and Interview.
- Mia Tarta (Junior): Named Ramapo’s Most Valuable Team Member, Mia earned an Honorable Mention in Speech and was the highest-scoring Honors level player on the team.
- Anna Koroskenyi (Sophomore): Won a Gold medal in Art and received an Honorable Mention in Music.
- Kiera Havel (Freshman): Earned a Silver medal in Language/Literature.
- Yuwon Choi (Senior): Received a Bronze medal in Essay.
This victory was a true team effort, with contributions from the entire lineup: Emilia Aronov, Connor Burch, Yuwon Choi, Matthew Firstman, McKenna Grant, Elle Guarracino, Kiera Havel, Kareem Ibrahim, Claire James, Peter Kavalieratros, Jon Kerim, Anna Koroskenyi, Alessia Leone, Kalina Piela, Brian Princiotta, Malena Reed-Margoulis, Riley Revere, Robbie Tanis, Mia Tarta, and Bella Van Slooten.
Coaches Meredith Noah and Erica Vitale represent the dedicated leadership behind this talented group of students.
More About the Decathlon
The Academic Decathlon is a series of interscholastic competitions for high school teams nationwide. The Decathlon encourages, recognizes, and rewards academic effort and excellence.
The Decathlon tests knowledge and academic skills—but isn’t just for the class genius. Students are put on a team of nine that assigns them to specific levels based on GPA. This is just one of the unique features of the Decathlon, in that each team represents a range of achievement levels. Three students from each GPA level make up that team. A team of alternates consists of students with no specific averages. The Indian Hills Team had twelve alternates.
To prepare for competition, the team members begin working and studying together early in the fall. On competition day, all nine team members participate in the same events and are judged by the same criteria. The team’s final score depends on the performances of ALL its members.
