Another group of Bulldogs headed to state competition February 10.
The Academic Decathlon team traveled to Purdue University to compete in the 32nd Annual Indiana State Finals. The Academic Decathlon is a series of ten competitive events measuring academic strengths in: art, economics, essay, interview, language and literature, mathematics, music, speech, science, and social science.

This year, State Finalists came from all over Indiana: Andrean, Chesterton, Crown Point, Highland, Homestead, John Glenn, Kankakee Valley, La Lumiere, LaPorte, Leo, Lowell, Madison, Martinsville, Portage, Reitz, and River Forest High School. Students are awarded certificates, medals, and plaques based on individual and team achievements. This weekend’s participating schools are competing to head to Madison, Wisconsin to represent Indiana in the annual National Finals.
Competition started Friday evening with a speech and interview. Competitors were given two minutes for an interview with two judges then seven minutes to deliver a speech. To arrive at Hicks Undergraduate Library, the “Underground’s”, Voted best place to study on the Purdue campus, the team traveled about four hours as soon as the bell rang to end the school day. On the bus ride, music from WWII (this year’s theme) played while everyone studied and quizzed one another.

Once on the Purdue Campus, the team checked in and dressed in formal attire. In the lobby, Chirumamilla paced around practicing his speech while junior Harrison Knable used a lint roller on his suit to look his best. Senior Rohan Reddy worked on fitting his tie to the perfect length, while checking in on Bulldogs boys basketball as they took down Providence. While cheering on the Bulldogs 173 miles away and carefully eating pizza ,the team was prepared and ready to go. Finally, they walked to the Underground’s.
“I was really nervous and excited,” senior Jacob Trulcok said. “This was my first Decathlon, so I kept going over my speech in my head.”

“I think practicing with Vijay [Churumamilla] and Neel [Jain] helped me prepare even more for the interview,” sophomore Ian Kimbell said.

“It was beautiful touring the school,” Lin said. “The water fountain area was really cool.”


Inside the building were interesting projects underway and models of some spacecrafts. The Apollo 1 Capsule Replica hung high in the rafters, and a US Air Force plane floated in the windows. A great artistic piece in the main entryway was “Little Alien Buddha” by German artist Eric Peters.
Reddy said that the building was “stellar. It was surreal to be in a building that so many prominent engineers have walked the halls of. Seeing the melting pot of ideas and inventions surrounding me and the amount of creativity in the building was truly jaw-dropping.”

Students made their way back to the Purdue Union where they were staying, and called it a night.
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Our Saturday started as early as a school day, and everyone fit in one last quick round of studying. In the lobby, Trulock quizzed his teammates over all the subjects. After realizing he and Reddy had forgotten their calculators on the bus, they rushed to get them while the others went to Pappy’s for a scrumptious breakfast.


“Adding in that last 30 minutes of studying- in my opinion- is what pushed us over,” said Knable. “We just barely beat Crowne Point for third; so obviously every single point counted immensely.”

“I may not have prepared for all subjects equally,” Chirumamilla said. “I really focused on math the most so my goal was to get a really high score in it.”

“I was definitely in a good mood after the art, music, and science tests. When I actually knew the answers to most of the questions, it really gave me an optimistic outlook for the rest of the day,” said Kimbell.
Second session began with a language test. After regular testing a super quiz started in sections called Varsity, Honors, and Scholar level. New Albany fell just short of the tie for third place. Medalists for the New Albany Academic Decathlon team are:
Rohan Reddy // silver // interview
Maddy Dodge // bronze // science & economics
Vijay Chirumamilla // bronze // mathematics
Neel Jain // silver // mathematics
Neel Jain // gold // economics
Harrison Knable // bronze // social sciences
Ian Kimbell // bronze // most individual points.

“I’m really proud of what I accomplished. When I ended up getting more medals than Harrison, I felt even better because it shocked him, and beating Harrison is awesome,” Dodge said.

Congratulations to the Academic Decathlon team and all the students who worked so hard to study all of these subjects in their spare time. Nationals are in April.