Academic Decathlon team makes great strides at state competition

by Divya Kumar
News Editor

The Coppell High School Academic Decathlon team has performed excellently within the span of this school year, practicing steadfastly throughout the beginning semester in order to compete at the state competition. All this hard work, it appears, has paid off in the end for the AcDec team, who was able to present itself, and Coppell as a whole, wonderfully at their state meet in Houston.

Out of the 40 teams competing, the CHS AcDec team placed 18th. This position was a huge improvement from last year’s rank of 24. Though all members performed exceptionally, the two who stood out the most were juniors Mitu Bhattatiry and Raghu Achukola. Bhattatiry medalled in music while Achukola did well in chemistry and math.

To prepare for this competition, for the entire year before the team had met for afterschool, as well as Saturday, practices. Though their performance at the state competition was exceptional and clearly correlated to the amount of hard work they put into it, the team unfortunately did not place high enough to continue to the next level.

For the continuation of the year, the team is beginning to prepare for next year’s topic – The Great Depression. Posters regarding the current topic, The French Revolution, have already been stripped from current sponsor, Donnette Alexander’s, room in order to make way for information on the new topic.

To learn more about the Academic Decathlon team’s preparation for this event or their future plans, click here, or contact sponsors Donnette Alexander (dalexander@coppellisd.com) or Tim Dixon (tdixon@coppellisd.com).