While the Kansas City Chiefs have established themselves as a dynasty and are going for a three-peat, Harmony Magnet Academy has already accomplished the feat in academics.
Harmony is now an academic dynasty when it comes to the Tulare County Academic Decathlon as it won its third straight Tulare County Academic Decathlon title on Saturday. As the county academic champion Harmony will compete in the State Academic Decathlon March 20-23 in Santa Clara where it has also set a high standard.
Harmony has come a long way since winning the first of three straight county titles two years ago. “We were surprised to win the county title,” said coach Kimberly Marsh about that first crown.
Members of the Harmony team who won the county title on Saturday were Danny Rodriguez, Judith Gomez, Kris Kashyap, Shivaraj Thiagarajan, Claire Holly, Thor Pearce, Alexander Delgado, Elisabeth, Ceballos and Owen Newsom.
Harmony finished with 34,736.1 points to win the county title. Leading the way were Rodriguez and Gomez, who both eclipsed 7,000 points for the first time.
If they're able to reach the 7,000 point level at state Rodriguez and Gomez will win distinguished awards for scoring 7,000 points. “We'll see what they'll do at state,” Marsh said. “They would like to hit 7,000 or even 8,000.”
Harmony will have an experience team going to state. Alexander and Ceballos will make their third trip to state while Rodriguez, Gomez, Kashyap, Thiagarajan and Newsom will make their second trip to state.
In the Academic Decathlon students compete at three levels based on grade point average: Varsity (3.199 and below), Scholastic (3.2 to 3.799) and Honors (3.8 and above).
In the honors division Rodriguez won the individual title while Delgado won the crown in the varsity division. Rodriguez also won titles in art, music and social science and Gomez placed first in science. To show Harmony's depth while not a member of the nine-member scoring team, Dani Ramos placed first in interview for Harmony. Harmony won 54 medals, 12 first, 22 second and 20 third at the county event.
Two years ago in its first trip to state Harmony won two medals as Allison Daguman became the first student in Tulare County history to win a state title as she won in interview. It was also the first time in 15 years a Tulare County team had won any medals at state.
Harmony improved its performance considerably at state last year winning 14 medals, including two more state titles. Delgado won the title in the varsity division in music and Ceballos won the state title in the varsity division in art.
Rodriguez also won three medals and placed second overall in Division IV honors at state. Also winning medals at state last year were Thiagarajan and Gomez. In addition Harmony placed third out of 14 teams in the Super Quiz last year at state.
Marsh said the team put in even more time this year as they meet every day during zero period and also met last summer and on Saturdays. Another difference this year Marsh said is “students take ownership of their own teachings.”
Rodriguez leads the music lessons and co-leads the economics lessons with Holly. Gomez leads the lesson in science and helps lead in art. Thiagarajan leads in social science.
Kris Kashyap co-leads in math with Alah Saleh, another member of Harmony's 19-member team who's not a member of the nine-person team who competes at county and state.
“In my opinion it's a win for the whole team,” said Marsh about all 19 members. “The whole team works together.”