Arcadia High School’s (AHS) Academic Decathlon (AcaDeca) team placed 13th out of 61 teams at the 2026 Los Angeles County competition from Jan. 24 to 31. They finished with their highest place since 2016. The team of nine was awarded 15 individual medals over seven different categories.
The team of decathletes was made up of seniors Kylie Cheng, Juliette Fang, Hannah Wang, and May Ling Wang; juniors Angelina Kong and Takeya Teng; sophomores Patrick Chen and Shao-Qun Wu; and freshman Nika Chan.
“Every year we get about a thousand pages to read based on the annual theme. These resource guides are on seven of the ten subjects: art, music, literature, science, social science, economics, and math. We also work on the other three subjects (essay, speech, and interview) around the beginning of second semester,” Co-captain Fang said. The theme for this year was the Roaring Twenties.
Fang, the highest scoring decathlete, won gold in art and essay, silver in literature and music, and bronze in interview.
“I particularly enjoyed studying music, since, as a cellist, getting into music theory and more technical aspects was fascinating,” she said.
The competition was split into three days. The first day, Jan. 24, consisted of multiple choice tests on seven of the ten subjects. On the second day, Jan. 28, competitors received essay prompts on either social science, literature, or science. The last day, held on Jan. 31, consisted of the speech and interview competition.
Co-captain Wang won gold in art and social science, silver in speech, and bronze in interview.
“Across the two-years I’ve competed, my favorite [written] subjects are hands down Art and Social Science. As someone who’s been an art fanatic since I was young, the pieces presented in the resource guide naturally captured my attention,” Wang said.
AcaDeca team members devoted countless hours to studying their subjects and practicing their skills. Cheng won gold in math and bronze in literature, May Ling Wang won bronze in essay and speech, Chen won bronze in art, and Teng won bronze in speech.
Students with strengths in any area are sure to excel in Academic Decathlon.
“I believe anyone with a genuine curiosity for learning will thrive in Academic Decathlon. To those who are on the fence, I highly encourage you to try out nonetheless; you may surprise yourself at what you are able to accomplish both individually and with others,” Wang said.
