On Saturday, Jan. 30, the Pascack Valley Academic Decathlon Team participated in the New Jersey Region II competition at Ramapo High School. Starting out bright and early, the team met at Pascack Valley at 6 a.m. and returned with smiles from ear to ear at 6 p.m.

Coaches Mr. Al Cann, AP Biology and Conceptual Physics teacher, and Mr. Christopher Nilsen, Honors and AP Chemistry teacher, along with students Daniel Ayoub, David Ayoub, Alex Choi, Laura Friel, Irene Ju, Pierce Kerin, Cassidy Lê, Anastasia Maltsev, Jennifer Peshansky, Chandni Shah, and Nicholas Urbaniak all participated in the competition this past Saturday.

This year’s topic for Academic Decathlon was India. During the competition, the team members must take a test in each of the following subjects: Mathematics, Science, Economics, Social Science, Music, Art, and Literature, which are all based on that year’s topic. Along with that, the students must write an essay, present a prepared and impromptu speech to judges, and go on an interview.

At the end of the day, after all the tests, speeches, and interviews have been taken and presented, the students reunite with their entire team and participate together in the Super Quiz in which all the teams from the Region I and II gather in the school’s gymnasium and participate in this speedy quiz. Each team picks three members to participate in each round: Varsity, Scholastic, and Honors. There are 36 questions in total, and in each round 12 are answered with the time limit of 10 seconds. These questions are random from any topic the students were tested on and get harder as the round go up.

PV’s team did exceptionally well and was tied for first place for two tie breaker rounds. At the end of the second round, PV came out in second place.

The team performed very well this year, according to coaches, with many members receiving awards.

Here are the award recipients:

Anastasia Maltsev: Honorable Mention in both Essay and Interview, High team scorer, Team MVP.
Cassidy Lê: Gold Medal in math.
Chandni Shah: Bronze medal in speech, bronze medal in music, silver medal in social science.
Jennifer Peshansky: Honorable mention in both math and economics, bronze medal in art, high scholastic team scorer.
Alex Choi: Honorable mention in interview.
Pierce Kerin: Honorable mention in math, bronze medal in social science.
Laura Friel: Gold medal in essay, honorable mention in interview, high varsity team scorer, and she received an invitation to compete in the state competition.
Nicholas Urbaniak: Gold medal in math among honors alternates.
Irene Ju: Gold medal in math among scholastic alternates.
David Ayoub: Bronze medal in economics among scholastic alternates.