St. Lawrence Martyr School, of Redondo Beach earned third place at the 2014 California State Academic Junior High Decathlon, held April 5 at Aquinas High School in San Bernardino.
Serra Catholic School, from the Diocese of Orange, won the event which featured nine teams from junior high schools throughout California, plus a team invited from Denver. St. Lawrence Martyr represented the Archdiocese of Los Angeles after the team’s third consecutive winning performance in the local competition March 1.
The five-hour State competition featured written tests in multiple subjects including logic, science, current events and math. The “Super Quiz” portion of the event that followed features 50 questions in multiple categories that were answered live in front of a cheering audience.
St. Lawrence Martyr placed second in the Logic portion of the competition. Individual awards were earned by Matthew Craig (third, Social Studies), and Sean Keenan (third, Current Events).
The St. Lawrence Martyr School 2014 Academic Decathlon Team members are Svetlana Altshuler, Andrew Burda, Matthew Craig, Paige Elliott, Sarah Geltz (captain and a member of all three championship teams), Sean Keenan, Sarah Oppenheim, Trevor Peitzman, John Schlaerth and Adam Schmieder, and alternate members Erik Carstens, Tristan Jamrog and Michael Yaccarino. The team was led by head coach Kathy Wise and assistant coaches Diane Craig and Nina Altshuler.
