Seward High Academic Decathlon Team Named State Champion Medium School Division at State Academic Decathlon Contest at Creighton University!

March 01, 2016

The Seward High Academic Decathlon Team won the State Champion Trophy in the Medium School Division at the recent Nebraska Academic Decathlon State Finals Competition held on Feb. 19 and 20, 2016 at Creighton University campus.  The Seward Team was the regional runner-up to Daniel Gross High in the Medium School Division in January and went on to defeat them in the finals to win the Championship at Omaha.   This is the first time for SHS to win the Championship in the nineteen year history of Seward competing in the competition.  The team was presented with a Championship Trophy for Medium Size Schools before a packed crowd and each team member received a large gold medallion and ribbon and a scholarship for competing at the state contest.

The SHS team will now compete on line in the Medium Schools National Competition on April 29^th, all day at the SHS Computer lab-competing in a ten test competition.  The team will be supervised by Craig Williams, the SHS Academic Decathlon Proctor.  The Nebraska representative school at the Academic Decathlon Nationals is Pius X, the winner of the overall Sweepstakes Award, and they will be traveling to Anchorage, Alaska for the National Competition, all expenses paid.

Team members for the contest were Honors Division: Will Brown, Will Helmer, Ben Galusha, and Alt-Josh Hendrickson;  Scholastic Division: Dylan Duer, Bryson Schluckebier, Katrina Bergantzel, and  Alt-Bailey Haas and Varsity Division: Adam Siebrandt, Hannah Wallace, Brodie Oshel, and Alt. Bea Pfeiffer.  Clark Kolterman serves as the team coach. 

The students all took the same tests during the day but competed only with students with their core classes Grade Point Averages.  Individual medalists included Ben Galusha-Third Place-Bronze Medal in Prepared Speech and First Place Top Score of Seward Team-Gold Medal, Beatrice Pfieffer- in the Alternate Division placed-First Place-Gold in Soft Science, First Place Gold in Hard Science and Third Place Bronze in Humanities.  Also in the Alternate Division, Josh Hendrickson place First in Hard Sciences.

The SHS Academic Decathlon Quiz Bowl team included Brodie Oshel, Hannah Wallace, Adam Siebrandt, Dylan Duerr, Bryson Schluckebier, Katrina Bergantzel, Ben Galusha, Will Helmer and Will Brown.  The competed in groups of three, each presented with ten questions on the India study information.  The SHS Team defeated Daniel Gross High School of Omaha in the quiz bowl contest at State.  Daniel Gross High had defeated Seward at the Regional contest and was the named champion team the regional contest, followed by Seward, who was the runner-up at Regionals-with both teams qualifying for state with Alliance High school placing third.  At the State contest, the medium schools are required to test with the large and very large school divisions. 

Each school was allowed to bring twelve students to compete in a series of academic contests and tests-under the general theme of India, including a general topic Prepared Speech, general topic Impromptu Speaking contest, Judge’s Interview, Math, Science relating to India, Economics relating to India , India Art, India Music, and Language and Literature with an India influence , ending with a Quiz Bowl at the end of the day-on the topic of India.  The students were also to read the novel “Nectar in a Sieve” by Kamala Markandaya for the Language and Literature contest.

Seward High Academic Decathlon Team Named State Champion-Medium School Division at State Academic Decathlon Contest at Creighton University!

The Seward High Academic Decathlon Team won the State Champion Trophy in the Medium School Division at the recent Nebraska Academic Decathlon State Finals Competition held on Feb. 19 and 20, 2016 at Creighton University campus.  The Seward Team was the regional runner-up to Daniel Gross High in the Medium School Division in January and went on to defeat them in the finals to win the Championship at Omaha.   This is the first time for SHS to win the Championship in the nineteen year history of Seward competing in the competition.  The team was presented with a Championship Trophy for Medium Size Schools before a packed crowd and each team member received a large gold medallion and ribbon and a scholarship for competing at the state contest.

Team members for the contest were Honors Division: Will Brown, Will Helmer, Ben Galusha, and Alt-Josh Hendrickson;  Scholastic Division: Dylan Duer, Bryson Schluckebier, Katrina Bergantzel,and  Alt-Bailey Haas and Varsity Division: Adam Siebrandt, Hannah Wallace, Brodie Oshel, and Alt. Bea Pfeiffer.  Clark Kolterman serves as the team coach. 

The students all took the same tests during the day but competed only with student with their Grade Point Averages.  Individual medalists included Ben Galusha-Third Place-Bronze Medal in Prepared Speech and First Place Top Score of Seward Team-Gold Medal, Beatrice Pfieffer- in the Alternate Division placed-First Place-Gold in Soft Science, First Place Gold in Hard Science and Third Place Bronze in Humanities.  Also in the Alternate Division, Josh Hendrickson place First in Hard Sciences.

Schools competing with Seward on the Medium and Large School Divisions included Gretna, Omaha Burke, Omaha Central, Bellevue East, Omaha North, Lincoln Pius X, Alliance, Daniel Gross and Seward.  In the Small and Very Small Division, finalists included Ashland-Greenwood, Brownell Talbot, Johnson County Central, Duchesne Academy, Elkhorn Mount Michael, Wahoo, and Cambridge, HTRS (Humbolt, Table Rock and Steinaur, and Nebraska City Lourdes Central.  Lincoln Pius X was named the Sweepstakes Champion and will represent Nebraska at the National Academic Decathlon in Alaska this summer.

“We were excited to win the Medium School championship for Seward High,” stated Clark Kolterman, sponsor for the SHS Team.  “This win is a reflection and testimonial to high quality of the educational program at SHS.  Our students are well prepared by our faculty to compete and hold their own at any contest in a variety of subjects-plus these Seward students are some of our best students, all with high ability!  We are very proud of each of these students-as it took a team score to win this contest!”

The SHS Academic Decathlon Team was sponsored by the Seward Optimist Club, the School District of Seward High Ability Learner Program (HAL), and the School District of Seward.  The Seward Optimist Club also sponsored individual SHS Academic Decathlon shirts for the twelve members of the team.

This is the 31^st year for the Nebraska Academic Decathlon program in Nebraska-a national educational program for students and has been directed by John and Kathleen Ansty of Omaha, assisted by Nebraska Academic Decathlon Board members April and Jerry Hoffman of Elkhorn, NE for all 31 years of the Nebraska Academic Decathlon contests.  The four were recognized and thanked for their years of service, as the Ansty’s will be retiring from the leadership position this year!  The Nebraska Optimist Clubs of Nebraska provide most of the 600 volunteers that coordinate the contests and are considered a major sponsor of the program.  The Seward Optimist Club was recognized for their continued support of the program.   The Seward Academic Decathlon team is now invited to participate in the National Academic Decathlon program through an online/computer competition for both winners in the Medium and Small School Divisions.

Photo:  Ben Galusha was named Top Team Score for the Seward Team at the State Nebraska Academic Decathlon State Finals.  He also won a Third place Bronze in Speech in the Honor Division-Large School.

Photo:   “The Seward Academic Decathlon Team wins State Championship Trophy /Medium School 2016-Front Row LR Bryson Schluckebier, Adam Siebrandt, Will Brown, Hannah Wallace, Bea Pfeiffer, Katrina Bergantzel, BR LR Bailey Haas, Dylan Duerr, Will Helmer, Ben Galusha, Josh Hendrickson, Brodie Oshel, Clark Kolterman-Coach/Sponsor.

Photo:  The Seward Academic Decathlon Quiz Bowl Team included FR LR Brodie Oshel, Hannah Wallace, Katrina Bergantzel, Adam Siebrandt, BR LR Dylan Duerr, Ben Galusha, Bryson Schluckebier, Will Helmer and Will Brown.