Local students did well in the Stanislaus County Academic Pentathlon, held virtually. Speech presentations were conducted by Zoom, while essay and objective testing were completed online.
The Pentathlon is designed to challenge students academically and promote their education. In the Pentathlon, seventh- and eighth-graders compete as individuals and as team members in Speech and in a series of five tests in subject areas including Mathematics, Fine Arts, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies featuring this year’s theme, “The Cold War.”
Participating schools could send up to 18 students to serve as the team. Students are placed in categories based on grade point average. Categories include Honors, 3.80-4.00 GPA; Scholastic, 3.25-3.79 GPA; and Varsity, 0.00-3.24 GPA.
Six local junior high and middle schools participated in this year’s event including: Blaker-Kinser Junior High School in Ceres, Ross Middle School in Hughson, Denair, Hickman, Oakdale and Prescott.
Ross Middle School was the Pentathlon’s winning team with Prescott Junior High School as the runner-up. Hickman Middle School placed third.
Team High Point Winners included Jacob Mullany of Blaker Kinser Jr. High, and Kayden Perez of Ross Middle School.
Individual High Point Winner in each division were: First Place Honors Champion, Kaveri Gupta, Prescott Junior High School; First Place Scholastic Champion, Kayden Perez, Ross Middle School; First Place Varsity Champion, Jacob Mullany, Blaker-Kinser Junior High; and Speech Champion, Lavanya Bansal, Prescott Junior High School.
Individual results included:
• Speech – Honors Bronze, Nikhil Pardiwala; Scholastic Gold, Aleena Maldonado; and Varsity Gold, Alissa Thompson, all Ross Middle School students.
• Science – Scholastic Gold, Kayden Perez; Scholastic Silver, Karidee Thompson; Scholastic Bronze Colton Taylor; Scholastic 5thn, Aleena Maldonado; and Varsity 5th, Alissa Thompson, all students from Ross; Varsity Gold, Jacob Mullany; and Varsity 4th, Kaylee Smith, both of Blaker-Kinser.
• Mathematics – Scholastic Gold, Kayden Perez; Scholastic Bronze, Karidee Thompson; Scholastic 4th, Aleena Maldonado; Scholastic 5th, Colton Taylor; Varsity Silver, Alissa Thompson (all Ross students). And from Blaker Kinser, Kaylee Smith received Varsity Gold and Jacob Mullany received Varsity Bronze.
• Social Science – Ross students Kayden Perez, Scholastic Gold; Colton Taylor, Scholastic Silver; Karidee Thompson, Scholastic Bronze; Aleena Maldonado, Scholastic 4th; and Alissa Thompson, Varsity 4th. Blaker Kinser students Jacob Mullany received Varsity Silver while Kaylee Smith received Varsity 5th.
• Fine Arts – Ross students Brenda Robles, Honors 5th; Kayden Perez, Scholastic Gold; Karidee Thompson, Scholastic Silver; Colton Taylor, Scholastic Bronze; Aleena Maldonado, Scholastic 4th; Kylee Bingamon, Scholastic 5th; Scarlett Villareal, Varsity Bronze; and Alissa Thompson, Varsity 4th. From Blaker-Kinser, Jacob Mullany earned Varsity Gold.
• Essay & Language/Lit – Ross students Colton Taylor won Scholastic Gold; Karidee Thompson, Scholastic Bronze; Aleena Maldonado, Scholastic 4th; Kylee Bingamon, Scholastic 5th; Alissa Thompson, Varsity Gold; and Scarlett Villareal, Varsity Silver. Jacob Mullany represented Blaker-Kinser to claim Varsity Bronze.
