North academic team scores high marks at state
May 17—GREENSBURG — The North Decatur History Academic Team scored second in the state of Indiana during a May 4 competition at Purdue University in Lafayette.
Coached by NDHS history teacher Ernie Ruble, the team of Cletus Rennekamp, Grant Bruner, Breanna McBride, Lillian Gardner, Jessa Wagner and Vanessa Apostolakos earned the distinction of being the second best history team in the state, second only because of a single question.
It was each team members first time competing. The "A" team consisted of Jessa Wagner, Lilly Gardner and captain Breanna McBride. The "B" team was Cletus Rennekamp, Grant Bruner and Vanessa Apostolakos.
This year's study material was the book "Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore" by James T. Patterson. The book is about the 27 years between the resignation of Richard Nixon and the election of George W. Bush with a lengthy list of all the players involved, political and social.
"I read it six times to prepare," Jessa Wagner said.
During the competition, each team was allowed to create their own "cheat sheets," but the topics came from anywhere in the book. As each question was presented (there were 25), the team had 30 seconds to come up with the correct answer. The questions were presented and answered by computer.
NDHS won the top honor in the region, which qualified them to compete against 60 other teams throughout the state.
"It was interesting to read the book because some of those names still come up in the news," said team member Lilly Gardner. "And it's fun to say 'Oh, I know who that is!'"
"You do so much work, and it all comes to just 25 questions, but I'm pretty impressed with us," Wagner said.
