Blaker Kinser Junior High School in Ceres was the overall first-place winning school participating in the 2017 Stanislaus County Academic Pentathlon.
The Ceres school amassed 18,101 points to outdistance second place school Oakdale Jr. High with its 15,874 points, and third place Hickman School with 15,749 points.
The 13th Annual Stanislaus County Academic Pentathlon drew approximately 150 students for the one-day series of tests, speeches and essays. The event was held Saturday at Prescott Junior High School in Modesto. The competition concluded with the Super Quiz and awards presentation.
The following is a recap of the winners from Blaker Kinser Jr. High.
In the speech competition, Gabriela Mejia claimed Honors 5th place; and Kaliq Santos took Varsity Gold.
In Science, Honors Bronze went to Sarahi Casteneda; Honors 5th place to Phusadee Sivongxay; Scholastic Silver to Davian Barba; Scholastic 4th place to Armando Sanchez; Varsity Gold to Israel Quezada; Varsity Silver to Kaliq Santos; Varsity 5th to Jasman Kaur; and Alternate Gold to Marilyn Alfaro.
In Mathematics, Gabriel Morton took Scholastic Silver, Kaliq Santos claimed Varsity Gold, and Israel Quezada took Varsity Silver.
In Social Science, Honors Gold went to Sarahi Casteneda, Honors 4th to Gabriela Mejia, Scholastic Silver to Armando Sanchez, Scholastic 5th place to Davian Barba Blaker-Kinser and Varsity Gold to Israel Quezada.
In the Fine Arts competition, Honors 4th place went to Phusadee Sivongxay, Honors 4th place to Gabriela Mejia, Honors 5th to Sarahi Casteneda, Scholastic Silver to Davian Barba, Scholastic 5th to Armando Sanchez, Varsity Gold to Israel Quezada and Varsity Silver to Kaliq Santos.
Top scorers in the Essay & Language/Literature competition included Davian Barba, who claimed Scholastic Silver; Armando Sanchez who took Scholastic 5th place; Kaliq Santos for Varsity Silver; and Israel Quezada for Varsity Bronze.
Sponsored by the Stanislaus County Office of Education, Omega Nu and the Education Foundation of Stanislaus County, the Pentathlon promotes scholastic achievement and interschool competition in academics. In the Pentathlon, 7th and 8th 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.
Participating schools send a total of nine members to serve as the core team - three students, in each of three categories, based on grade point averages. Schools may send as many alternate team members as they choose.
Categories include Honors, 3.80-4.00 GPA; Scholastic, 3.25-3.79 GPA; and Varsity, 0.00-3.24 GPA.
The eight local junior high schools that participated in this year's event included: Blaker-Kinser, Creekside, Hickman, La Loma, Oakdale, Prescott, Turlock and Walnut Grove.
