Clubs

Academic Decathlon Competing at Nationals for Second Year

Kyra Nason, Writer • March 18, 2025

Academic Decathlon members (L to R)Donatello Tietz, Rain Sanchez, Samuel Marenge, Max Shelton, Justin Nkazi, Kaitlyn Thangaraj, Ryleigh Penn, Sofia Emami-Ahari, Maya Sajadian, Reid Carolus, Karson Willier, and Julia Hines. Photo courtesy of Allia Yarrow.

The MCHS Academic Decathlon team placed 3rd among all teams that attended the state competition in Waterloo earlier this month. They will be representing medium schools in Iowa as they attend to the National Online Competition. Academic Decathlon is a club that competes on an academic level and this year their focus is climate change.

Here are the results from the state competition.

Kaitlyn Thangaraj: Gold in Speech. Silver in Art and Essay. Bronze in Interview and Overall Score.

Sofia Emami-Ahari: Silver in Speech and Interview.

Samuel Marenge: Bronze in Math.

Justin Nkazi: Bronze for Overall Alternate Score.

Rain Sanchez: Gold in Math.

Donatello Tietz: Gold in Literature.

Karson Willier: Bronze in Speech.

The National Online Cometition will take place in Des Moines Iowa on May 1-3.

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About the Contributor

Kyra Nason, Writer

Kyra Nason is a sophomore at MCHS. Born in Hawaii but raised in Iowa. She came to Mason City in the fourth grade and has been here ever since. She has a few hobbies, like listening to music, baking, landscape photography, and softball. Kyra is taking a journalism class because she wants to learn more about what’s going on in the school and with the world. “I don’t watch or read the news often so I really don’t know what is going on with the world or school. I hope taking this class will educate me more about the people of this world and the types of events that happen in this school.” She also thinks journalism is going to be a very interesting class that will help her get out of her comfort zone and get along with more students. Kyra’s goal is to start taking NIACC classes next year to study nursing and she also wants to graduate as soon as possible. She is interested in being in the healthcare field later on in life.