LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Upper Lake High School’s Academic Decathlon team participated in the Bay Regional Academic Decathlon over the weekend and will advance to the state competition to represent Lake County.

The Solano County Office of Education hosts and coordinates the annual Bay Region Academic Decathlon event for students.

“Water, A Most Essential Resource” is the theme of this year’s decathlon in which
250 students from 17 high schools across nine counties — Contra Costa, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo — were challenged to bring their “A” game.

The decathletes completed testing, speeches and interviews last week, with the competition culminating on Saturday with a live virtual Super Quiz followed by the awards ceremony.

In addition to Upper Lake, the schools taking part in this year’s competition were American Canyon High School, Napa Valley Unified School District; BASIS Independent Silicon Valley Charter, Santa Clara; Buckingham Collegiate Charter Academy, Vacaville Unified; Campolindo High School, Acalanes Unified; Casa Grande High School, Petaluma City School District; Davis Senior High School, Davis Joint Unified; Dixon High School, Dixon Unified; Evergreen Valley High School, East Side Unified; Freedom High School, Liberty Unified; Jesse Bethel High School and Vallejo High School, Vallejo City Unified; Menlo-Atherton High School, Sequoia Unified; River City High School, Washington Unified; Rodriguez High School, Fairfield-Suisun Unified; Vanden High School, Travis Unified; and Willits High School, Willits Unified.

Willits placed fourth overall and Upper Lake placed sixth overall, and the two schools will now go on to represent Mendocino and Lake counties, respectively, at the state competition, said Upper Lake High Head Coach Anna Sabalone.

Guiding the team along with Sabatone is Assistant Coach Angel Hayenga.

Sabalone said the state competition will take place virtually starting on March 1 with the essay. Objective testing will take place on March 5, on March 12 the speech and interview round will be held and the awards are planned for March 19.

Upper Lake High’s team members competing at the regional competition were Upper Lake Joslyn Huntley, Ahmana Jones, Atlantis Jones, Paris Klier, Monserrat Luna, Zackery Marrufo,
Isaiah Marschall, Cassidy McAuley, Desiree McCarty, Diana Mendoza-Razo, Natalia Rosin, Isabel Sanchez, Georgia Schmit, Cierra Wenning, Emily Williams and Kadenz Rickert.

Team members won the following awards in the weekend regional competition:

• Art: Gold, Isabel Sanchez and Georgia Schmit; silver, Joslyn Huntley.
• Economics: Gold, Georgia Schmit.
• Essay: Bronze, Georgia Schmit.
• Interview: Gold, Isabel Sanchez; bronze, Georgia Schmit, Ahmana Jones and Diana Mendoza-Razo.
• Literature: Gold, Georgia Schmit; bronze, Isabel Sanchez.
• Math: Silver, Georgia Schmit; bronze, Isabel Sanchez.
• Music: Silver, Georgia Schmit and Desiree McCarty; bronze, Diana Mendoza-Razo.
• Social Science: Bronze, Emily Williams.
• Speech: Silver, Isabel Sanchez; bronze, Georgia Schmit.

Georgia Schmit, a junior who competes in the varsity level, won the bronze for individual high score.

The team high score gold went to Paris Klier, with Schmit receiving the silver and Atlantis Jones the bronze.

The team that will represent Upper Lake at the state competition are Atlantis Jones, Paris Klier, Kadenz Rickert, Desiree McCarty, Ahmana Jones, Natalia Rosin, Isabel Sanchez, Georgia Schmit and Joslyn Huntley.

The team members thanked everyone in the region and the county who have supported them this year and especially those who volunteered to be speech and interview judges.