El Diamante rolls to fourth straight Tulare County Academic Decathlon title
There was something for everyone Saturday at the Tulare County Academic Decathlon.
▪ El Diamante High of Visalia dominated in capturing its fourth consecutive title – and fifth overall – and will represent the county at the state competition, which will be held virtually March 1-12.
▪ Granite Hills, paced by senior Sofia Biago, swept the individual honors in the honors, scholastic and varsity divisions for only the third time in the Porterville school’s history.
▪ Orosi High’s Christopher Huerta Torres got a workout, medaling in all 10 categories as the school captured the small school title.
The COVID-19 pandemic, now entering its third year, forced the Super Quiz and awards portions of the academic decathlon to be closed to the public.
In fact, El Diamante coach Mikk Jolly admitted the pandemic made it difficult to recruit students.
“I had four or five kids out constantly, so I had kids Zoom in from home or they were out for a couple of weeks,” said Jolly. “I had a pretty green team this year because I’ve had two years of not being able to recruit because of COVID.”
That mattered little as El Diamante won the Super Quiz, then had Taylor Bennett place tops in the music, social science, and interview divisions of the academic competition.
Teammates Patrick Oliver (art) and Karen Gerges (speech) contributed individual wins.
The team is motivated, said Jolly, by the trophies won by previous teams that line the classroom where practice is held.
“My room is full of all these trophies. I’m like, ‘All right, three in a row. What are you guys going to do?’ So it helps motivate them,” he said.
Jolly calls Bennett “an amazing student.”
“She does tons of community service. She takes tons of AP classes. She’s super involved, super humble,” he said of Bennett who competed in the honors division.
Jolly said scholastic division member Ludwin Barraza Rivera “is a phenomenal kid.”
“He came to us about three or four years ago, didn’t speak any English and now he’s getting an award from the English department for his achievements,” said Jolly of Barraza Rivera.
New to the team this year was varsity participant Evelyne Prado.
“She really surprised me. She joined the team kind of late, so she picked it up and jumped in,” said Jolly. “She got a lot of medals. I was very proud of her.”
Angela Cruz, an El Diamante member for the second year, shrugs off the pressure of winning another team title.
“I was inspired by my cousin; she was in the academic decathlon,” said the sophomore about why she joined the team. “My mom told me I should do it too, so I went for it.”
Cruz, who picked up several medals on Saturday, said her favorite subject is arts. She plans to become a veterinarian.
“I’m very proud of the team’s win, and I was surprised at my math medal,” said Cruz.
Granite Hills coach Elissa Lombardi said her team was hampered not only by the pandemic but by other factors.
A team member moved out of the district when her mother died in December and went to be with her father. Another student moved to another school.
“Ten days before the competition we lost our sixth player,” said Lombardi, who has coached Granite Hills for 12 years.
Lombardi called the rivalry with El Diamante “strong.”
“I have a lot of respect for them,” she said. “We’re a smaller school, so we don’t quite have the participation that they do; but, I really respect them because they also work very hard to get where they are.”
Lombardi was happy with the three individual titles.
“The other two times that we did, we won and advanced to state,” said Lombardi. “I’m really proud of Daniel Gómez (scholastic winner). He moved from Kansas and he hadn’t done the academic decathlon. But, he did the pentathlon, so he had a little bit of experience.”
Daniel’s twin brother, David, also competed.
Lombardi praised Biagio.
“She’s amazing because not only does she have a very keen intellect, but she has a very strong work ethic and has integrity,” said Lombardi, who said Biagio came in recently on her free period to help “a difficult” lab in her regular chemistry class.
“She’s very generous with her time and with other students.”
Biagio, a senior competing in her third academic decathlon, calls herself “a perfectionist, and a bit self-deprecating.”
She pocketed the best overall scores in economics, literature, science, and, social science.
“Teamwise, we were down one player, so our total score only included five people when it usually is six,” said Biagio. “So, regardless of how successful our team was, it wasn’t mathematically possible (to win).”
She wants to major in astrophysics and “pursue something in STEM and something with research.”
The only student not from El Diamante or Granite Hills to capture the top score in a category was Àngel Gutiérrez of Dinuba High.
This year’s Super Quiz and awards ceremony were held at the Tulare County Office of Education Administration and Conference Center.
The theme for the competition was ‘Water: A Most Essential Resource.’
The winners
Overall: El Diamante High (Taylor Bennett, Patrick Oliver, Samuel Garland, Ludwin Barraza Rivera, Angela Cruz, Lavina Angel, Alex Dowdy, Evelyne Prado)
Super Quiz: El Diamante
Large-school winner: El Diamante
Small-school winner: Orosi High
Individual/honors division: Sofia Biagio (El Diamante)
Individual/scholastic division: Daniel Gómez (El Diamante)
Individual/varsity: Christopher Andersen (El Diamante)
Art: Patrick Oliver (El Diamante)
Economics: Sofia Biagio (Granite Hills)
Literature: Sofia Biagio (Granite Hills)
Mathematics: Àngel Gutiérrez (Dinuba)
Music: Taylor Bennett (El Diamante)
Science: Sofia Biagio (Granite Hills)
Social science: Taylor Bennett (El Diamante)
Essay: Sofia Biagio (Granite Hills)
Interview: Taylor Bennett (El Diamante)
Speech: Karen Gerges (El Diamante)