Competing down in San Antonio in a variety of academic disciplines against students from across Texas, the Redhawks Academic Decathlon team scored more than three thousand points higher than 2024, allowing the team to improve its final placing.
“This year’s AC Dec competition was very exciting for Liberty High School,” Academic Decathlon head coach Tim Johannes said. “We improved tremendously from last year. Were in that top ten zone again, [and] we got eighth place and we brought home a ton of medals. The kids did so well they outperformed, I thought so, were definitely in a good place very excited very happy with how it all turned out.”
The team returned to campus with 12 individual medals including junior Zaara Ahmed receiving a perfect 1000 in varsity interview.
“Along with reading the resource guides which are 100-200 pages,” Ahmed said, “I did a couple Gimkits that me or another group member made and also [tried] to quiz myself and the other parts of my team. I won essay and interview essay, [which] is an event we prepare before the competition. It’s just a timed essay and then interview is on site where we have to interview with two to three teachers.”
Here’s a look at how some of the Redhawks did down in San Antonio:
- Sydney Kiely: top score for LHS honors
- Alan Rajkumar: silver in honors art, silver in honors social science
- Jai Dilbaghi: bronze in scholastic math
- Dhwani Mittal: top score for LHS scholastic, gold in scholastic interview (perfect 1000), and silver in scholastic music
- Zaara Ahmed: bronze in varsity essay, gold in varsity interview (perfect 1000)
- Riley Cleaves: top score for LHS varsity, and silver for varsity speech
- Luke Kobayashi: silver for varsity math
