Merced County high schools compete in 41st Academic Decathlon. See who took home top honors

Students from Merced High ook the top spot in the 41st Merced County Academic Decathlon this weekend and will now go on to the virtual state decathlon next month.

Nine high schools in Merced County sent students to this year’s county academic decathlon between Jan. 29 and Feb. 5. This year’s theme was “Water: A Most Essential Resource.”

The competition required the nine students from each high school team to be tested in a variety of academic subjects in a “super quiz” event — including art, economics, language, literature, science, math, music and social science, according to a Merced County Office of Education news release.

Communication events also gave kids the opportunity to show their speech, interview and essay skills.

Schools who send students on to the county’s academic decathlon pay $750 as a participation fee, and the Robert Wayne Scholarship program matches $500 of that amount.

Together with other scholarships awarded to participating students, about $1,000 in scholarships is awarded to each school. Two students from each school are awarded $250 in scholarships, while one student from each school is awarded a $500 scholarship.

The overall top-scoring student in this year’s competition was Daniel Chen from Merced High.

The other top scorers from each school this year were Liam Newsam of Buhach Colony High, Abraham Sanchez, Jr. from Delhi High, Agastya Jain from El Capitan High, Arjun Lakireddy from Golden Valley High, Riley Lopez from Le Grand High, Alfredo Moran from Livingston High, Elizabeth Gonzalez from Pacheco High and Hannah Cordova from Valley Community School in Los Banos.