MONMOUTH — Monmouth Academy’s Academic Decathlon Team placed second in the State of Maine Virtual Academic Decathlon Championship on March 13.

Coached by Cathy Foyt and Scott Foyt, the team will now have the opportunity to compete in the National Academic Decathlon Virtual Championship in April.

The following Monmouth students won the following medals: Olivia Degen (bronze – literature), Delaney Houston (bronze – science), Ostin Hasenfus-Smith (bronze – literature and essay), Evan Hasenfus (gold – economics and silver – music and bronze – science), June Foyt (gold –math and silver – science and bronze – social science, economics, and art), Holy Hunt (gold – music and silver – essay, social science, literature, economics, art and bronze – science), and Rhayna Poulin (gold – social science, music, economics, art and silver – science, essay and bronze – literature).

Highest Team Scorer – Poulin
Third highest Varsity Scorer in Maine – Foyt
Second highest Scholastic Scorer in Maine – Hunt
Highest Honor Scorer in Maine – Poulin
Highest Overall Scorer in Maine – Poulin

Academic Decathlon is comprised of A, B and C students, who study together as a team for a year and then compete in 10 (decathlon), different categories: art, economics, essay, interview, language/literature, mathematics, music, science, social science, and speech. Because of the pandemic, speech and interview were not included in this year’s state championship, and all of the testing at the state and national levels will be done virtually.

Last year’s Academic Decathlon theme was “In Sickness and in Health,” this year’s is “The Cold War,” and next year’s will be “Water: A Most Essential Resource.”

Monmouth has competed in the following National Academic Decathlon Championships: 1999 California, 2002 Arizona, 2004 Idaho, 2013 Minnesota, 2016 Alaska, and 2018 Texas (where Monmouth placed third in the nation overall; and first in the nation in Super Quiz, in Division III). Last year, Monmouth had qualified to return to Alaska for the nationals, but that competition was canceled because of the pandemic.