Seward High Competes At State Academic Decathlon in Omaha At UNO!

February 23, 2015

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SHS Senior Kyle Glandt won the top Gold medal and declared the champion in the Nebraska Academic Decathlon written essay competition at UNO. He wrote on the topic of the topic “Nuclear Energy and It’s Future,” wining the top award of all the entries in the large and medium schools categories.  Savannah Dodson won a Bronze Medal-Third Place for her test scores in the area of Language and Literature and Tiger Nolan also received a Bronze Medal-Third Place in the area of Math for his test scores.  Austin Van Velson received the top Gold Medal for having the highest Team score at the competition involving his test scores.

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Team members for Seward High Academic Decathlon team included Kyle Glandt, Rebekah Couch, Trent Beckler, Austin Van Velson, Tiger Nolan, Savannah Dodson and Collin Mettenbrink.  Clark Kolterman served as the coach/sponsor for the team.  The team competed with other schools in the medium and large school category, in the categories of prepared speech, interview, impromptu speech, written essay, and tests in Math, Language and Literature, Economics, Art and Music-along with a Super Quiz Bowl event at the end of the two days for all of the participants. The Seward Team received a trophy for placing second at the regional contest and qualifying for the State Academic Decathlon contest and a plaque for being a state finalist at the Academic Decathlon State Contest.

Students are divided into three groups and compete with other students with the same grade point averages in a range of testing-including Honors Level, Scholastic Level and Varsity Level.  All students take the same tests, culminating with a final Super Quiz Bowl and awards ceremony at the end of the event. 

Seward High’s Academic Decathlon Team competed at the recent State Nebraska Academic Decathlon competition at the University of Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska for two days-February 20 and 21, 2015.  The team qualified as one of the top two winning teams at the regional contest for Medium size schools at Omaha Gross High School.  The top two teams moved on to compete at the State Level, and competed with the large schools for a chance to attend the national Academic Decathlon contest in Garden Grove, California. Seward High and Daniel Gross High were the two medium schools competing with the large school division.

Seward High competed in the Medium/Large school Division at the State Level competition against the winners from the regional contests, including Omaha Gross, Creighton Prep, Omaha North, Omaha Central, Pius x of Lincoln, Omaha Burke and Seward.

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The Seward Academic Decathlon Team is sponsored by the School District of Seward, the School District of Seward High Ability Learner Program (HAL) and the Seward Optimist Club.  The Seward Optimist Club recently donated special printed team tee shirts for the Seward High Academic Decathlon Team for 2015.