AcaDeca At The Bay Regionals

By Yash Omprakash

February 12th, 2026

(From left to right:

Top Row: Veda Bharath, Linh Dang, Avaneesh Gorantla, Sharva Desai, Anish Muralikrishnan, Aryan Saini, Albert Hernandez

Middle Row: Omisha Saxena, Jasmine Lin, Srikari Tanikella, Dhruva Vutukuru, Vivaan Sawhney, Nihal Kappachali, Ayaansh Sinha, Moksh Shah, Gautham Chunduri

Bottom Row: Roshan Venkatesh, Aaroosh Sinha, Ameya Tanikella, Sneha Dev, Mrs. Melissa Marfia-Roza, Ruby Yan, Kerra Duong, Irene Kim

Source: EVHS USAD)

EVHS’s U.S. Academic Decathlon Club (AcaDeca) is in the midst of their historic season with a “record high score [for EVHS] of over 40,000 points as a team,” says club co-president Ruby Yan. This month, we spoke to Yan about the club and their recent success. But before diving into AcaDeca’s jaw dropping performance, let’s first take a look at what it is.

The club is one of EVHS’s many academic clubs specializing in academic competitions, but AcaDeca stands out from the rest. The USAD competition covers 10 academic subjects: Art, Economics, Literature, Mathematics, Music, Science, and Social Science as multiple-choice tests, as well as the separate categories of Essay, Speech, and Interview. Additionally, the teams take place in an in-person quiz-bowl-esque competition known as the Super Quiz. The scores from the tests, essays, speeches, and interviews are accumulated to form the individual and team points. 

Academic Decathlon also “places a heavy emphasis on inclusivity and academic diversity.” A requirement for a full team is having team members from 3 different GPA ranges: varsity (3.2 and below), scholastic (3.2 to 3.9), and honors (above 3.9).

AcaDeca’s latest competition occurred on Saturday, January 31st, held at Solano County Community College. This competition provided the first opportunity for the club to “qualify with a whole team.” This performance is a stark contrast to the previous years where the club never surpassed 30,000 points. Saturday’s performance rewarded the club with a 3rd place finish in the entire region, with members Aaroosh Sinha and Sneha Dev receiving the two highest scores in the entire Bay Region and winning in their categories by over 2,000 points. The two also scored individual scores above 8,000 points, which was a threshold broken only this year over the entire region. Altogether, the club earned 10 bronze medals, 4 silver, and 10 gold. This performance is all the more impressive considering that Academic Decathlon is a subsidized class at other schools while at EVHS, it remains a club. This year, our team got moved up to the most elite division, which made it even harder to earn medals, but the team still managed to pull through a historic win despite the increase in difficulty. 

Mrs. Marfia-Roza, AcaDeca’s advisor, is incredibly proud of the team for transitioning from “grassroots motivation” to being self-propelled and having greater internal motivation from its members and officers. The club officers this year are also unique, with the first officer board that is not completely dominated by seniors. Yan would like to shout-out the underclassmen as well for “having the motivation to allow our team to do well in the competition.” She mentions that this motivation was “a rare thing to see” and that it was “inspiring and hopeful for the team’s future” to see freshmen do so well this year. The club officers also want to thank Ms. Pejing Lee for supervising the in-person competition, as well as Mrs. Marfia-Roza for her invaluable support and passion for the club. 

Currently, the team is hoping to qualify for states, since a full team provides them the opportunity to do so for the first time in five years. They also hope to fundraise enough money to allow them to bid for states, so they can “keep giving our Decatheletes the opportunities they deserve.” Next steps include hosting a Heptathlon, where students perform individually for awards and potentially qualify for a national standing in the competition. The team is “open to any and all members who want to join us” next year and are excited to see new members. The club is planning to host study sessions and events over the summer in preparation for their next season. We hope to see more from the club in seasons to come, but for now, let us congratulate AcaDeca for a job well done.

(5 club members pose for photos with the 3rd place trophy 

Source: Albert Hernandez, 9th grade)