Chesterton High School hosted their annual Academic Competition Awards on Monday evening. All the academic groups were recognized for their participation and coaches in each area gave the highlights of this school year.
Academic Decathlon
The Academic Decathlon team advanced to state again and placed 5th in the large school category. Members of the Academic Decathlon team are: Hannah Maluvac, Mark Wilcox, Erin Grimes, Hayden Hodge, Julia Graff, Jacob Weitzel, Hannah Pruitt, Jordan Tuel, Cara Sullivan, Jessica Oswald, Elissa McNicholas. Their coach is Dale Hewitt.
Individual medal winners at state were Mark Wilcox with 3rd in interview and 3rd in science. Hayden Hodge with 2nd in interview and 3rd in math and essay. Julia Graff with 1st in science, 1st in economics and 2nd in music.
Julia Graff, Hayden Hodge and Mark Wilcox were nominated for Duneland Academic Conference (DAC) All Stars for their contribution to the Decathlon team.
Academic Super Bowl
The Academic Super Bowl team placed second at the DAC tournament. At the area competition, Fine Arts and Math took first place. Social Studies placed second. Science and English placed third. The Math team of Jared Gallina, Keagan Wong, Laura Estridge and Jeff Radzik qualified for State.
Members of the Academic Super Bowl team are: Kelly Craig, Jared Gallina, Branden Wong, Jordan Tuel, Hannah Pruitt, Jeff Radzik, Mark Wilcox, Laura Estridge, Jacob Weitzel and Keagan Wong.
Their coaches are Dale Hewitt, Anna Zervos, Eileen Haggerty and Jennifer Jendrzejczyk.
Jared Gallina, Keagan Wong and Kelly Craig were nominated for DAC All Stars for their contributions to the Academic Super Bowl team.
Science Olympiad
The Science Olympiad team placed third (in class AA) high school division at the IUN Regional Competition.
At the State competition at IU, the team placed 11th. The team earned more medals at state than ever before.
Team members include Maggie Brown, Cara Sullivan, Jared Gallina, Trevor Krygier, Joel Peterson, Kyle Krol, Mark Wilcox, Branden Wong, Keagan Wong, Ryan Day, Matt Jewison, Joey DeHoyos, Chris Sexton, Nolan Poczekay, and Nathan Poczekay. Their coaches are Kim Stahura and Jack Neuliep.
Quiz Bowl
The Quiz Bowl Varsity Team took second place and Junior Varsity won first in Duneland School Corporation Area Competition. Winning the All Star round at the tournament was Keagan Wong. The Quiz Bowl coach is Anna Zervos.
Mathematics Team
Chesterton High School had another successful season in their mathematics competitions. In the MATH FAX competition CHS competed in various levels with much success. The top three finishers for CHS in Algebra I were Gavin Dooley in first place, Benjamin Hoham in second place and Aidan Li in third place. This group finished third in the division and third in the nation. In Geometry Branden Wong finished first at CHS and in the division. Sarah Harmon finished second at CHS as well as in the division. And Keilee Willer, Haydn Malackowski and Roman Comacho all tied for third place at CHS and 4th in the division. This group had 8 of the top 10 scores in the division and therefore finished first in the division as well as fourth in the nation. In the Algebra II division, Nolan Poczekay won first place at CHS and was second place in the division along with being 5th in the nation. Molly Grimes was second in the school while Samuel Winski finished third to help the school finish second place in the division and fourth place in the nation. In the top class, Advanced Mathematics, Keegan Wong was the top scorer followed by Jared Gallina in second while Nathan Poczekay was third. The team finished fifth in the division and seventh in the nation.
In another competition – Indiana Math League, Chesterton finished in second place within their division and was fifth overall in the state. In addition Keagan Wong finished with a top 20 overall high score individually in the state.
Kirsten Wozniak was the school winner in yet another mathematics competition called Trig Star conducted at CHS by the American Society of Land Surveyors. Kirsten wins $50 cash and is in competition for the state winning of $500 cash based upon her score and time in the competition.
Spell Bowl
The Spell Bowl team competed at the Area Spell Bowl and the DAC Spell Bowl. Members of the Spell Bowl team are: Jeff Radzik, Jared Gallina, Cara Sullivan, Branden Wong, Spencer Pritchard, Hannah Maluvac, Erin Grimes, Keagan Wong, Mark Wilcox, Hayden Hodge. Their coach is Jennifer Jendrzejczyk.
Team members Hannah Maluvac, Jared Gallina and Jeff Radzik were standout competitors at the events and all were nominated for Duneland All Stars. Jared Gallina was the Mental Award winner.
Japanese Olympiad
CHS won the state championship in the third-year division, was runner-up in the second-year division and finished third in fourth-year at the Japanese Olympiad of Indiana at Ball State University in Muncie. CHS has now won the Japan Bowl/Japanese Olympiad state championship nineteen times along with three national Japan Bowl championships and one national runner-up.
The Japanese Olympiad of Indiana is an academic competition for second, third and fourth-year students with categories including speaking, culture, kanji characters, proverbs, listening, geography, history, and onomatopoeic expressions.
The CHS third-year team of Josh Guzek, Bryan Pamintuan and Nolan Poczekay defeated Indianapolis North Central and Bloomington North in the final round to win the state championship. It was the second consecutive championship for Guzek. To make it to the final round, the CHS team had to defeat the other CHS third-year team of Jason Hebblethwaite, Camma Duhamell and Nick Lane in a playoff round.
In the second-year division, the team of Keilee Willer and Harley Wines finished as runner-up to North Central and ahead of Bloomington North. The other second-year team of Orion Bohren and Casey Roberts also turned in an excellent performance.
Sydney Ghoreishi and Krysllyn Villones placed third behind Valparaiso and Connersville.
Japanese Olympiad coaches are John Sparks and Aki Tsugawa.