Academic Decathlon triumphs in scrimmage

By Somi Jun

Feature Editor

With an overall score of 32,525 points, South Pasadena High School’s Academic Decathlon team won against Beverly Hills High School during a scrimmage match on Saturday, October 25. The scrimmage marks the first competition of the year and functions as a primer for the rest of Academic Decathlon’s season.

Four of SPHS’s top six scoring decathletes were seniors Elise Matsusaka, Benny Feldmann, Rebecca Bao, and Oscar Garcia. Junior Jacob Chun and freshman Theo Matsusaka also placed. Senior John Dullaghan received an honorable mention for the objective portion of the competition.

With 22 members, 14 of whom are new, Academic Decathlon began the year on a positive note by outscoring Beverly Hills, who won last year’s match. Decathlon also raised its overall scrimmage score by a total of 6125 points, from 26,400 in 2013. Although they won with just a narrow margin this year, SPHS students are pleased with the improvement and the opportunity to strengthen relations with Beverly Hills.

“[The scrimmage] gave us a good idea of what our competition is like for this year,” co-president Elise Matsusaka said. “I think it was really good for the new kids because the atmosphere was similar to that of the real competition. It was close though, and we still have lots of work to do.”

Academic Decathlon’s next competition will be on November 15 at Monrovia High School.