SHS wins seventh-consecutive AcaDeca title
SHS' 2025 state-champion Academic Decathlon team. Back, from left: Torin Haesle, Jack Lovin, Harrison Giles, Evan Brubaker, Wyatt Lang, Bryce Landano, Becky Haag, Ellie Klippel, Julieanna Carla, Sarah Wolff, Miriam Hammond, Sophia Sperry. Front, from left: Abby Eldore and Stella Haag.
Photo courtesy BECKY HAAG
REXBURG — Sandpoint High School’s Academic Decathlon team continued its streak of dominance with a winning score of 36,705 at the state competition at Brigham Young University–Idaho last weekend.
In AcaDeca, students participate in a 10-event competition designed to test participants’ scholastic aptitude. SHS was the state champion in 2006 and 2010 and has stood atop the podium every year since 2019.
According to advisor Becky Haag, every team member medaled in at least one event. In total, SHS netted 30 gold medals, 32 silver and 20 bronze.
With the state title secured, SHS’s “national nine” (Torin Haesle, Evan Brubaker, Abby Eldore, Wyatt Lang, Ellie Klippel, Keagan Cole, Sophia Sperry, Bryce Landano, and Sophia Capodagli) will prepare to compete against teams from across the country in the 2025 United States Academic Decathlon Nationals competition.
Haag said the team is aiming for a top three finish in the contest — a mark it has only achieved once before.
“We feel like this ambitious goal is attainable and it is best to reach for the stars!” Haag said in an email.
To fund the trip, the team will need to raise about $4,000 in the coming weeks. The national contest will take place May 1-3 at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Iowa.