St. Francis Decathlon Team Crowned Medium School State Champs

Editor's Note: The following information was submitted by St. Francis High School Spokesman Andrew Burghdorf.

This past weekend the St. Francis High School Academic Decathlon Team competed in the 33rd Annual California Academic Decathlon in Sacramento, California. The team earned a spot in this prestigious state competition by finishing first at the Southern California Private Schools Academic Decathlon (SCPAD) regional competition earlier in the year at Alemany High School.

The California Academic Decathlon competition is a contest of academic strength and provides an environment that encourages, acknowledges and rewards academic excellence through teamwork among students of all achievement levels. Sixty-five teams from high schools all across California participated in the state tournament.

Based on its total points, St. Francis High School was recognized as the top medium-sized school (enrollment between 651 and 1,300) in California. Therefore, the team now has the opportunity to go on to represent California in the United States Academic Decathlon 2012 Medium School Online National Competition scheduled for April 4 and April 27, 2012. In addition to an excellent team finish, three members of the team also received individual awards for their outstanding performance.

David Yoo: Silver Medal, Honors Division, Interview

Jeremy Koch: Gold Medal, Scholastic Division, Mathematics

Roylance Bird: Silver Medal, Honors Division, Speech. Bird was also recognized as the Highest Scoring Student among the members of the St. Francis High School team.