Academic Decathlon NYS Champions 2026

Academic Decathlon Wins NYS Competition

The team, under the steady leadership and advisement of Mr. Ben Wightman, won the NYS competition at West Genesee High School on Wednesday, February 25th.  Mr. Wightman provided some highlights and information: 

Achievements:

• AD won first place in both the overall competition and the SuperQuiz. It's their second state championship in a row.

• Ella Blair had the highest score in both the Honors Division and the overall competition. 

• Rae Western had the highest score in the Varsity Division. 

• Sebastian Gebers and Brooklyn Benson had the second highest scores in their divisions. Oden Benson had the third highest score in his division.

• 9 team members combined to win 44 total medals.

• The  final score was Cazenovia's highest since 2019. 

• Sebastian Gebers was honored for competing in all four years of high school. 

General Info:

• Team members are Sebastian Gebers, Ella Blair, Nolan Campagna, Brooklyn Benson, Oden Benson, Alex Dolly, Rae Western, Connor Hopper, Finley Hagan, Evan Molloy, Eli Revelle, and Henri Reynolds. 

• The students have been studying about 1000 pages of material since May. They read the study guides, and teach each other with presentations, review games, and quizzes.

• Students compete in different divisions based on GPA, similar to how wrestling classifies athletes by weight. 

• The 10 subjects are art, music, literature, math, economics, social science, science, speech, interview, and essay. 

The team will travel to compete nationally in California at the end of April.