{"id":8849,"date":"2026-03-27T14:13:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T19:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/?p=8849"},"modified":"2026-03-27T14:13:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T19:13:19","slug":"academic-decathlon-attends-district-competition-and-advances-to-state-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/academic-decathlon-attends-district-competition-and-advances-to-state-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Academic Decathlon attends District competition and advances to State competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday, Jan. 30, Academic Decathlon team members drove to Carlisle High School to compete in the District competition against all seven schools in the region for a spot at the state competition in Hershey. <\/span><\/p>\n

Students took tests on all of their studied subjects including math, science, social science, literature, mu-<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Junior Morgan Hood walks back to her seat after receiving her first gold medal in music at the Academic Decathlon District competition. Hood also received a bronze medal in math at the award ceremony held after the competition. Photo by Catherine Hittle<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

sic, economics, and art in addition to writing an essay on a topic, delivering a written speech, and getting interviewed by volunteers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis meet [had] been pretty highly anticipated by our team. It takes a lot of hard work and preparation\u2026 and I\u2019m very proud of the team\u2019s performance,\u201d said senior Academic Decathlon captain Reese Peterson.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The team placed third overall, and will be attending the state competition on March 13-15.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good [District competition]. My favorite part was after the speech and <\/span>interview because I just felt this pressure that was lifted off and I could enjoy the rest of the night,\u201dsaid junior Morgan Hood.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hood received her first gold medal in the music category at Districts, along with bronze medals in literature and math. In order to study effectively, she used Blooket and highlighted the reference material.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Peterson thinks that the best way for the group to study going forward in State practices is more group work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need everybody to do their part in preparing for the next competition,\u201d Peterson said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At districts, Peterson received silver medals in essay writing and social science, bronze medals in music and art, and gold medals in economics, speech, and overall score.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Senior Academic Decathlon captain Reese Peterson walks back to his seat after receiving his third medal of the night- a bronze medal in art. Peterson also received medals in essays, music, social science, economics, speech, and a medal for overall score. Photo by Catherine Hittle<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy favorite part of Districts was the speech. I love public speaking,\u201d said Peterson.<\/span><\/p>\n

Peterson received a 995 in the speech category, an almost perfect score and the highest speech score that anyone in Montoursville Academic Decathlon has ever received. His speech was about the 1814 Congress of Vienna, which he said was a very interesting topic for him to speak about.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to the nine competing members representing Montoursville at the State competition, sophomore Nadia Farenish will be attending as an individual competitor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very happy and proud of myself. That was my first time winning medals apart from last year\u2019s state competition,\u201d said Farenish.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Farenish received a bronze medal in music and a silver medal in math. Her approach to studying is relatively the same as Hood\u2019s.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUsually I\u2019ll take the subjects that I need or want to focus on and then I\u2019ll go through and highlight the stuff I think will be the most important,” Farenish said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Sophomore Nadia Farenish walks back to her seat after receiving a bronze medal in music at the District Academic Decathlon competition. Farenish also received a silver medal in mathematics at the competition. Photo by Catherine Hittle<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She said that for the state competition she will be focusing mostly on things like science and economics that the group struggles with as a whole.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to spending time with this smaller group [at the state competition],\u201d Hood said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since the competition is two days, the team is driving out on Thursday, March 12 and staying in a hotel before the written testing on Friday, March 13.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to studying hard,\u201d Farenish said about States practices.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Peterson, Farenish, and Hood are also all looking forward to watching people get awards and hopefully get awards themselves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis whole year I\u2019ve been very encouraging because I want everyone to have the best resumes for college as possible- and having lots of awards helps that,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cThis is a great group, and I\u2019m very excited to see where everyone goes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Recognition of Students Who Received Medals:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

Essay<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Reese Peterson – Silver<\/span><\/p>\n

Abel Conahan – Bronze<\/span><\/p>\n

Music<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Reese Peterson – Bronze<\/span><\/p>\n

Rylee Tillema – Bronze<\/span><\/p>\n

Zion Brown – Bronze<\/span><\/p>\n

Morgan Hood – Gold<\/span><\/p>\n

Nadia Farenish- Bronze<\/span><\/p>\n

Carter Reeder- Silver<\/span><\/p>\n

Art<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Reese Peterson – Bronze<\/span><\/p>\n

Nadia Farenish – Bronze<\/span><\/p>\n

Izabella Weaver – Bronze<\/span><\/p>\n

Literature<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Morgan Hood – Bronze\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Catherine Hittle – Bronze<\/span><\/p>\n

Math<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Sadie Hall – Silver<\/span><\/p>\n

Morgan Hood – Bronze<\/span><\/p>\n

Nadia Farenish – Silver<\/span><\/p>\n

Social Science<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Reese Peterson – Silver<\/span><\/p>\n

Abel Conahan – Bronze<\/span><\/p>\n

Economics<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Reese Peterson- Gold<\/span><\/p>\n

Zion Brown – Bronze<\/span><\/p>\n

Abel Conahan – Bronze<\/span><\/p>\n

Elias Rodriguez – Silver<\/span><\/p>\n

Science<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Zion Brown – Gold<\/span><\/p>\n

Alexis Zimmerman-West – Bronze<\/span><\/p>\n

Speech<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Reese Peterson – Gold<\/span><\/p>\n

Ruby Watts – Bronze<\/span><\/p>\n

Catherine Hittle – Gold<\/span><\/p>\n

Interview<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Reagan Greene- Bronze<\/span><\/p>\n

Carter Reeder – Gold<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall Score<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Reese Peterson – Gold<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Featured Photo (at top): The Academic Decathlon team crowds around senior captain Reese Peterson as he holds the team mascot, Jenny, in victory after the team won third place overall at the District competition and advanced to the state level. The District competition took place at Carlisle High School and consisted of 10 competitive events that students from 7 schools participated in. Photo by Academic Decathlon adviser Mr. Mitch Hart<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday, Jan. 30, Academic Decathlon team members drove to Carlisle High School to compete in the District competition against all seven schools in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":8974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}