Seneca Valley Wins PA Academic Decathlon Championship

CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP PA — Seneca Valley's Academic Decathlon Team once again has won the state championship and now will compete in the nationals competition.

With a score of 41,476 and an 1,100-point lead, the team placed first in their division against 15 of the top high schools across Pennsylvania at the recent United States Academic Decathlon (USAD) Pennsylvania State Competition in Philadelphia.

The team will now represent the state in the national competition in April.

Each high school competed with a team of nine students. Students competed in 10 events over two days. All subjects are related to the 2021-22 theme: Water: An Essential Resource. The Seneca Valley Academic Decathlon state team includes Shivani Umesh, Ava Stewart, Nicholas Nedzesky, Rayan Ghaffar, Nancy Chen, Shanker Pillai, Quang Nguyen, Ashley Kemp and Katherine Hilling.

The following students won state competition awards:

• Rayan Ghaffar: Essay (Bronze), Economics (Silver), Speech (Gold), Interview (Gold), Social Science (Gold), Individual Overall* (Silver)
• Nancy Chen: Music (Gold), Literature (Gold), Art (Gold), Social Science (Silver), Individual Overall* (Bronze)
• Quang Nguyen: Music (Silver), Interview (Bronze), Math (Gold), Art (Silver), Economics (Gold), Social Science (Bronze), Individual Overall* (Bronze)
• Shivani Umesh: Music (Gold), Speech (Gold), Interview (Gold), Art (Gold), Social Science (Silver)
• Ava Stewart: Music (Gold), Literature (Bronze), Science (Silver), Social Science (Bronze)
• Shanker Pillai: Essay (Gold), Math (Bronze), Economics (Bronze)
• Ashley Kemp: Essay (Gold), Art (Gold), Science (Silver)
• Katherine Hilling: Literature (Bronze)

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