By Isabel Costian
A group of students woke up earlier than usual Wednesday morning to compete at the annual Academic Decathlon district competition. Richardson beat the other three schools defending the district title.
Richardson beat Pearce by 34 points with a team score of 39,556.2.
“I felt pretty excited and a little nervous, since it was everyone’s first official competition of the year,” senior team leader Emily White said. “I was just so incredibly proud of all my teammates, since it was the first year for a lot of them and they’d all done so well.”
Students participating took seven tests, wrote an essay, gave an interview and performed two speeches – one prepared and one impromptu.
“Upon walking into the room where I would be giving my speech, I nearly had a heart attack,” sophomore Chasyn Andrews-Philbin said. “I could barely remember the first sentence.”
To prepare for the competition, members of the team attended meetings over the summer and throughout the school year.
“Before the competition, I felt nervous,” sophomore Ashley Ubben said. “During though, I felt confident, because I realized that I had prepared all I could by that point.”
Each part of the competition was scored out of 1000, giving a maximum score of 10,000 for an individual and 60,000 for a team.
“After, I was thrilled because we won and I knew we had worked hard to deserve it,” sophomore Katharine Gavitt said. “It was a great competition and our team was fantastic.”
Students said even the most arbitrary details were important for a slim win.
“I was incredibly stressed out,” Andrews-Philbin said. “You’re even judged on your handshake.”
Many members had never competed before, but a few were more experienced like White.
“It’s kind of fun to see who’s new and who’s back from the other teams,” White said. “We sort of get to know each other a little as we keep coming back, and it makes for a great friendly rivalry.”