ALEMANY GETS TOP MARKS IN ACADEMIC DECATHLON.Byline: Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer MISSION HILLS - For the fifth straight year, Bishop Alemany High School Bishop Alemany High School is a Roman Catholic secondary school located in the Mission Hills neighboorhood of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. It is located within the San Fernando Pastoral Region of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. crushed the competition in the Academic Decathlon's Southern California private school finals, easily besting its traditional rival, St. Francis High School. Also, Alemany's Melissa Cortina cor`ti´na n. 1. (Biology) a cobwebby remnant of the partial veil which in some mature mushrooms hang from the edges of the cap. Noun 1. , 17, of Granada Hills finished highest overall among the 162 students participating in the competition. After beating 17 other private schools from San Diego to Santa Barbara in both the fast-paced public Super Quiz and the overall competition, Alemany now will head to the state finals, to be held in Los Angeles over three days next month. ``I'm extremely proud of them,'' said Alemany coach Janie Prucha. ``They were the classiest, most determined and dedicated team.'' Alemany's nine-member team set a school record with a total of 48,645 points out of a possible 60,000 in the 10-event competition, topping second place finisher St. Francis' score of 43,550. Cortina's score of 8,585 out of 10,000 points beat runner-up Cynthia Kinard (7,965) a student from first-time competitor Flintridge Sacred Heart school Sacred Heart School may refer to one of these schools: In the United States
The decathletes endured a grueling day, arriving at Alemany at 7 a.m. to go through a series of closed-door competitions, which included delivering prepared and impromptu speeches, going through a job-style interview and answering written questions on a wide variety of topics. They ended with the decathlon's only public competition, the Super Quiz, in which Alemany correctly answered 23 out of 30 questions on the topic ``The Sustainable Earth.'' Three other schools tied for second with 20 correct. Competition coordinator Joann Schnelldorfer said it took a lot of hard work for the students to come this far. ``It amazes me every year that these kids have this capacity,'' said Schnelldorfer. ``Sometimes it's scary.'' Although Alemany led throughout the Super Quiz, the pressure was on for the final contestant, team co-captain Nicole Rodriguez. But in between shouts from supporters of ``Go Nicole! Go Nicole! Whoooh!'' Rodriguez rose to the occasion, correctly answering four out of five questions. ``I'm excited and completely relieved,'' a breathless Rodriguez said afterward, in between hugs from her friends. ``Now I know what they mean by catharsis catharsis Purging or purification of emotions through art. The term is derived from the Greek katharsis (“purgation,” “cleansing”), a medical term used by Aristotle as a metaphor to describe the effects of dramatic tragedy on the spectator: by . It feels like it's all paid off. Oh wow! I'm so excited!'' Now the team is not only looking forward to the state finals, but beyond them to the national finals to be held in San Antonio, Texas “San Antonio” redirects here. For other uses, see San Antonio (disambiguation). San Antonio is the second most populous city in Texas, the third most populous metropolitan area in Texas, and is the seventh most populous city in the United States. As of the 2006 U.S. , in April. ``We'd like to see the Alamo Alamo Eighteenth-century mission in San Antonio, Texas, site of a historic siege of a small group of Texans by a Mexican army (1836) during the Texas war for independence from Mexico. ,'' Prucha said. The members of Alemany's winning team besides Cortina and Rodriguez are Drew Cowens, Peter Noyes, Matt Pomeroy, Michael Rains, Rex Stoner ston·er n. 1. One that stones. 2. Slang a. One who is habitually intoxicated by alcohol or drugs. b. One who is a delinquent or failure. , Michael Taylor and Tim Whelan. Sharon Veenhoff shares coaching duties with Prucha. CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- color) Members of the Alemany team cheer a teammate during the Super Quiz portion of the Academic Decathlon decathlon (dĭkăth`lŏn), in modern Olympic games, a contest for men held over two days and composed of 10 track-and-field events. at UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX on Saturday. (2) Melissa Cortina, an Alemany student from Granada Hills answered every one of her questions in the Academic Decathlon Super Quiz correctly, making her the overall top finisher. David R. Crane/Staff Photographer |
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