WY’s Academic Decathlon team has just returned from the national competition in Garden Grove, CA, where they took home the third overall team in the country in their division. Co-captains Tim You ‘15 and Matthew Patrick ‘15 lead the team of eight to their victory.

Joining their captains on the competing team were Gerri Zhang ‘15, Jonathon Marek ‘17, Trajan Hammonds ‘16, Melanie Sykes ‘16, Tyrone Ferguson ‘15, and Jacob Gonzalez ‘16. In total, the team took home 18 medals, including an overall 2nd place in the Super Quiz category of the competition.

In the past 30 years, WY’s AcaDec team has taken home 29 state championships; 2003 was the only year they did not win the first place title.

Patrick has been on the competing team for two years. He says he took AcaDec to be a part of something important at WY.

“When I was a sophomore, I didn’t have anything that made me stand out. When I heard that I could join the Academic Decathlon program, and be a part of one of the most successful programs at WY, I jumped on the opportunity,” Patrick says.

AcaDec studies all year in subjects pertaining to a certain topic, and spend much of their time with the team studying and bonding. This year’s topic was everything related to alternative India. Next year’s topic is slated to be India.

“When I first realized how much work might be involved, I’ll be perfectly honest, my first thought to myself was ‘I’ve made a terrible mistake,’” says Patrick. However, it seems that all of their hard work pays off in the end.

“We studied all year, but in the end we have a lot of fun,” says Hammond.