"Leading the Bret Harte Bullfrogs at this years California State Academic Decathalon competition was senior Owen Gayle who won a gold medal with his speech about his cat Leon.
‘Owen has a natural ability to imbed passion into his speeches,’ stated Bret Harte coach Jennifer Truman. ‘I just had a gut feeling when he proposed his speech this past fall about his beloved cat that it would be a winner. After all the hours perfecting his speech, it paid off.’
Gayle also won the gold medal at the Regional competition in early February with the speech, earning the highest score of the competition. Gayle scored 950 points out of a possible 1000 points for his speech, which was the highest score amongst all other competitors in his division. [He also won a silver medal in Essay.] Gayle competed in the Scholastic Division.
Joining Gayle in bringing home medals were: Senior Jade McBride with two medals: Silver in Literature and Silver in Interview, varsity division; Junior Stella Stammerjohan: Silver in Economics varsity division; Senior Aurora Lewis: Highest Team Score (she had the highest overall score of all Bret Harte competitors) (Honors Division)
The Bullfrogs were also represented by: Rebecca Hungerford (Honors Division); Cheyanne Stephens (Honors Division); Amelia Baxter (Scholastic Division); Ella Becker (Scholastic Division); Delaney Owens (Varsity Division)
Students compete in 10 theme based subject areas. This year’s theme was Humans and Technology.”
Summary and photos courtesy of Ms. Truman.