Bishop Hendricken High School’s Academic Decathlon Team won its eighth consecutive Rhode Island state championship earning them a trip to Frisco, Texas, to represent the state in the United States Academic Decathlon (USAD) national competition in April. The team, coached by Sister Carol Anne Murray, tied for second in Division II and their performance marks the third consecutive time the team has broken into the top 3 nationally. The team won the national title in 2017. Hendricken is also the only team from Rhode Island to break into the top 3 since the USAD began the national competition in 1982. Bishop Hendricken received a score of 45,902.6, the eighth highest in all divisions, and an even greater score than 2017 when the team won the national competition with a score of 43,612. Oakwood High School of Ohio placed first this year with a score of 52,608.3 and Hendricken tied for 2nd place with Shanghai High School from China of the International Division. The team had been meeting to practice twice a week for 2 hours a day since the summer. Sister Carol Anne also expects them to study on their own for 45 minutes a day. The students compare it to taking another AP class. After 26 years as Hendricken’s Academic Decathlon coach, Sister Carol Ann is the longest reigning and winningest Academic Decathlon team coach in Rhode Island. The Hendricken 9-man team of Mitchell Boyer, Timothy Dziekan, Harris Gazder, Yongyuan (Steve) Huang, Jaidan Idarraga, Stephen Marandola, Ryan Murphy, A. Alden Platt, and Dylan Temel competed in five different events: The Super Quiz™, Speech, Interview, Essay and Tests of Knowledge. This year’s theme was Africa and Hendricken received 20 individual medals on top of their second place team finish: 4 gold, 7 silver, and 9 bronze medals.
