Team wins regional title
By Jason Arndt
Editor
For the ninth time in 11 years, the Wilmot Union High School Academic Decathlon team captured a regional title on Jan. 12 at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, which automatically qualifies the squad for the state competition in March.
An academic decathlon is a competition composed of ten categories: art, economics, essay, interview, literature, math, music, science, speech and social science.
The regional title, according to coach Don Serkowski, earns the team a top ranking in the state.
Wilmot’s academic decathlon team, last year’s defending state champions, will make its 14th consecutive state appearance.
The team was led by a group of sophomores.
Serkowski said the sophomores – Claire Vozel and Marcus Wolff – are the first sophomores in school history to achieve more than 8,000 points.
Additionally, seniors Kylie Henderson and Emily Heckel won their respective divisions, earning both an individual trophy and overall blue ribbon.
While Vozel finished third overall in the honors division, she broke the 8,000 point plateau, and won blue ribbons in music, economics, social science and essay. She also picked up red ribbons in art and science, and in literature, she claimed a white ribbon.
“She is both the highest scoring freshman and sophomore in Wilmot history,” Serkowski said.
Wolff, meanwhile, placed fourth overall in the honors division where he notched a blue ribbon in science along with red ribbons in both economics and social science. He also picked up white ribbons in art and mathematics.
Levi Keen, another sophomore, took fifth in the honors division and won a red ribbon in mathematics. He also had white ribbons in literature, science and social science.
“(Levi) is closing in on the 8,000 point mark,” Serkowski said.
Henderson leads scholastic division
Senior Kylie Henderson, who eclipsed the 7,000 points for the first time in her career, won the scholastic division. Henderson had blue ribbons in music and art; red ribbons in literature and science, and in social science, she picked up a white ribbon.
Finishing third overall in the scholastic division was junior Austin Adam, who won blue ribbons in literature, science, social science and essay. In music and art, Adam notched two red ribbons. He added a white ribbon in economics.
Freshman Zack O’Brien, meanwhile, narrowly missed capturing a ribbon in music, where he finished fourth.
Heckel heads varsity division
For Heckel, who won the the varsity division, she collected nine total ribbons to lead the team. Of her nine, Heckel had blue ribbons in literature, science, art, social science and speech. Heckel picked up red ribbons in music and essay, and for economics, she added a white ribbon.
“Emily is most likely the highest scoring varsity decathlete in the state at present,” Serkowski said.
While junior Tanis Rossow notched fourth place overall, courtesy of a blue ribbon in music and red ribbons in social science, art and science and white ribbon in economics, Ambriel Siggeman added another four to the team’s 49 collective ribbons.
Siggeman, also a junior, earned a red ribbon in literature and white ribbons for mathematics, music and economics.
“They also posted the second highest regional score by a Wilmot team,” Serkowski said.