Real smarties: Westwood High team wins bronze at U.S. Academic Decathlon

Students from Westwood Regional High School made history last weekend, placing third place in the nation in their division of the United States Academic Decathlon.

“It was really exciting because we worked so hard,” coach James Thomas said in an interview this past week, after the nine-member team returned from the competition in Pittsburgh. “We knew we had the potential to be in the top four but we really wanted to be in the top three.”

The Westwood squad, formally known by its acronym, WACADECA, competed in the nationals April 25-27 in the medium-sized school category, facing state champion teams from Alaska, Idaho, Indiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Lathrop High School in Alaska took first place, while New Berlin West High School in Wisconsin was second.

The Academic Decathlon features interviews, essay writing, a "Super Quiz" in front of a live audience and exams in art, economics, literature, math, music, science and social science. A key moment in Pittsburgh came when the team took part in interviews before judges. Thomas said the team had a “big jump” in scores during this section.

“Right before they had the interviews, we just sat as a team and hit them with interview questions,” recalled the coach, who said this practice lasted about 45 minutes. “They were really in the zone when they went in for that and they really did well. That was probably the best interview scores we’ve had.”

When senior Maria Tsakova noticed that she and her teammates were getting individual awards left and right during the awards ceremony, she believed there was a good chance the team would place somewhere in the top ten. She was ecstatic when she realized they were among the top three.

Tsakova was proud of how she and her other teammates, many of whom also are involved with the school's theater and debate clubs, handled the decathlon's speech section.

“Based on the reaction and the way they were talking about their speech experience, I knew that we were going to get a lot of points from that,” said Tsakova.

Two students, Daniel Shotkin and Aaron Zeiler, were both honored for placing second overall in their respective divisions, which are based on grade point average. Shotkin said the team hadn’t expected to place as high as they did, as a New Jersey team hasn’t made it to first, second or third in any national decathlon.

Earlier: Westwood High School team competes for national Academic Decathlon title

“As soon as we got third, we were really excited and at a loss for words because that’s never happened before,” said Shotkin. “This is only our second time going to nationals, so it’s something that we never would have expected three years ago.”

Shotkin said he and his other teammates put in the effort to meet for three-hour study sessions every Saturday during the school year, a move which paid off in the end. Tsakova said the team would also constantly share study guides with each other to prepare for the event.

WACADECA members not only got to meet people from all over the country, but also forged new friendships with students from Hackensack High School, who also attended the competition as part of a different division. Hackensack came in ninth in their bracket.

“They were really nice and we became close with them, which was another fun aspect,” said Shotkin.

Stephanie Noda is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: noda@northjersey.com

Twitter: @snoda11

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Westwood NJ students take bronze at 2024 US Academic Decathlon