STRATTANVILLE, Pa. (EYT) — Clarion-Limestone hosted and won the Pennsylvania Academic Decathlon Western Scrimmage League competition on Saturday, featuring 300 students from 20 schools from northwestern Pennsylvania.
C-L’s team bested such large schools as runner-up McDowell of the Erie area, and third-place Seneca Valley as well as the Northwest PA Collegiate Academy, which was fourth. North Clarion was fifth overall.
“They all work so diligently and as a cohesive team to be able to do their best work,” said Lorna Ondrasik, the team’s coach and a gifted teacher at C-L.
“Throughout this entire competition season, the students are required to study packets of materials, practice their own speeches, work on their interviewing skills, and learn how to properly write essays.”
Ondrasik explained that there are three divisions, including Honors, Scholastic, and Varsity.
The honors division contains students who have a grade point average of 3.75 and greater.
Scholastic contains people with GPA between 3.00 to 3.75.
Varsity contains people who have a GPA below 3.00.
Clarion-Limestone’s individual winners included the following:
– Taylor Devey, Gold, Speech — Honors
– Greyson Knepp, Bronze, Speech — Scholastic
– Curvin Goheen, Silver, Speech — Scholastic
– Andrew Forrest, Bronze, Interview — Scholastic
– Katie Melcher, Silver, Speech — Varsity
— Tre’ Haines, Silver, Interview — Varsity
– Brenden Perry, Bronze, Interview — Varsity
The theme for this year’s competition is Africa. The students participated in three different events. They wrote a timed essay, gave a prepared speech, and participated in an interview.
The next competition will be on Saturday, December 9, at Northwestern High School in Erie. This is still a scrimmage to “practice” and qualify for Regionals, which will be in February.
“That competition will consist of seven subject tests: math, social science, art, literature, music, economics, and science,” Ondrasik said.
“All of these are a timed test, too. The questions come from the study materials the kids have been working with all school year.”
