THE
Arrow
Page 15
Page 12
Girls Soccer earns 4th consecutive League title. Page
Cove Club organizes to make a difference.
Westlake High School VOLUME XXXIV, ISSUE 5
16
Boys Basketball earns playoff spot.
100 N. LAKEVIEW CANYON ROAD, WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA 91362
February 14, 2012
Decathlon Team Makes History with 1st Place Victory
ACA DECA TEAM STRIKES IT RICH: (left) Caleb Stokols, Wyatt Green, Aaron Demsetz , Brian Ho, and Lily Chen pose at the awards ceremony. (below) The entire team shows their awards.
COURTESY PHOTOS
Dance Team Takes 11 Awards at WCE Lisa Battaglia Editor-in-chief
Continued on page 2
Feature Editor
WHS Academic Decathlon team, led by advisor Joe Nigro, secured first place in the Ventura County Academic Decathlon competition for the first time in WHS history. Defeating all other county teams, the team will move on to the state championship, which takes place March 15-17 in Sacramento. Team A competed in the Red Conference. In addition to getting first place overall, it also placed first in Music, Science, Art, Math, Economics, and Science. Team B achieved first place overall in the Blue Conference, as well as third place in Speech and Science. Members also had impressive individual performances. Wyatt Green '12 earned three scholarships for the highest individual Honors senior score, the highest Red Conference score, and the highest score overall. Green's teammate Brian Ho ‘12 received a scholarship for the highest individual Scholastic senior score, and Aaron Demsetz '12 earned a scholarship for the highest overall senior score in the Blue Conference. (For the full list of awards, see page 3.)
Science Olympiad Heads to Regionals
Meini Cheng News Editor
WHS Science Olympiad team will attend the regional competition on Feb. 25 at Occidental College. The team members will gather and await the start times of their events. The whole competition includes 23 events, scheduled throughout the day. For the competition, the participants must be knowledgeable in a broad range of topics, including fields such as anatomy, biology, physics, chemistry, engineering, and environmental science. With either a written test or a hands-on activity, each event takes approximately one hour to complete. During the day of the competition, the team has “ample free time to discuss events and socialize with fellow members, and as a builder, I enjoy observing the solutions of others to the same engineering problem,” said Jeffrey Kurohara ‘12. The team has two big goals this year. The first is “to do well at the regional competition and qualify to compete at the state competition,” said Fandi Lin ‘12. “We also want to establish a group of prepared underclassmen that can lead Science Olympiad in future years.” Science Olympiad is a school club open for everyone to join, but the team is selected based on various qualifications. This year, the application process had two parts: a written application and a scrimmage in which applicants competed in up to three competitions. Members are organized into groups to study for their respective competitions. “Our team has several seniors who are excellent in math and sciences with previous competition experience,” commented Lin.
In preparation, the members study using textbooks, prep books, and notes from previous courses. “I have my old blueprints, measurements, and devices from my previous events, and I took notes on the contraptions of other competitors from previous years,” explained head-engineer Kurohara. This year, the team is Harry Chung ‘13, Vasant Iyer ‘13, Kurohara, Paul Kwon ‘13, Allen Li ‘12, Lin, Alexander Loh ‘14, Winnie Long ‘12, Grace Ng ‘13, Amanda Shi ‘14, Monica Shi ‘14, Alper Vural ‘12, Stella Wang ‘12, Cynthia Yin ‘14, and Kev-
in Yin ‘12. “We’ve had an influx of incredibly talented team members in all portions of the competition. I can confidently say that this year’s team is the strongest we’ve ever had, in all six years,” stated Li. “I have no doubt that we’ll do very well.” If the team performs well at the regional competition, it will advance to the state competition on April 12 at Canyon High School in Anaheim. Goals are set high for the team. As Lin stated, “We’re looking forward to competing at state, having a good time, and all those shiny medals.”
COURTESY PHOTO
WHS was packed as 400 dancers and their supporters attended the West Coast Elite Dance Competition championships Feb. 11. The team won 1st in Large Lyrical, 1st in Medium Jazz, 2nd in Small Jazz, 2nd in Intermediate Jazz, 3rd in Large Hip-Hop, 4th in Elite, and Top Overall Technique Award in Intermediate Jazz. Makayla Yoshimoto ‘12 placed 9th overall as a top 10 solo finalist and Zoe Steele ‘12 placed 4th in Improv Contemporary. Madison Olandt ‘13 won 1st in Improv Contemporary and Paige Ingles ‘15 won 3rd in Freshman Solos. After four years on the team, for cocaptains Steele and Yoshimoto the day was bittersweet after months and years of preparation as they set off to college. “I never thought this would happen to me, I am so happy that I got to experience being in the finals,” said Yoshimoto. Steele expressed pride in the entire team for working so hard despite having “three teammates injured and out of competition season.” “As a senior, I know I’m going to remember these girls as my home away from home,” said Steele. In addition to WHS, 15 schools from Southern California competed in the dance competition with solo dances, small group dances, and team dances. The event went from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. With both team captains leaving this
Julia Shi
NEW HEIGHTS: Samuel Hsu, Kevin Yin, and Ryan Kurohara experiment with new methods of engineering and building.