Vernon academic decathlon team reaches states

Vernon – Vernon Township High School’s Academic Decathlon Team garnered enough points and medals in the regional competition to make it to the state contest earlier this month.

Senior Chris Monschauer won three gold medals in economics, interview and speech and a bronze medal in Mathematics. Junior John Allogio won a gold medal in science and an honorable mention in speech; senior Rebecca Stokem won a bronze medal in science and an honorable mention in speech. Junior Mathew Maass won an honorable mention in essay. Freshman Kelly Schiesswohl earned an honorable mention in literature and speech. Senior Nicole Pirringer was the highest scorer on the team across all categories. Competing as alternates, Freshmen Alexis Margroff won a gold medal in literature and a bronze medal in economics and Jacob Gehrig won a silver medal in music.

At the state competition, Jacob Gehrig competed as a regular team member and won another silver medal in music; Mathew Maass won a silver medal in essay; John Allogio won a bronze medal in science. Honorable mentions were earned by Christopher Monschauer in interview; Nicole Pirringer in interview and essay; Kelly Schiesswohl in interview.

The competition topic was World War I and students studied materials covering the history, music, art, and economics of the time, as well as math and the science, which this year, was genetics. Vernon is the only Sussex County high school that participates. Competitors are from every other county in the state.