Columbus High School Wins 2025 PAGE Georgia Academic Decathlon State Title

Muscogee County Public Schools’ Columbus High School captured its first PAGE Georgia Academic Decathlon (GAD) State Championship. The competition was held Friday, Feb. 21, through Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025 at Kennesaw State University. The team scored the highest total points overall in the competition, earning the Howard Stroud Championship Trophy. 

Columbus High School is a Division I, (based on Round 2 scores) participant, and will be submitted as the Georgia representative to the annual United States Academic Decathlon® (USAD®) National Competition, May 1-3, 2025. This year’s national competition will be in Des Moines, Iowa.

Columbus High School took state championship honors at this year’s Georgia Academic Decathlon State Competition, sponsored by the Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE) in partnership with Kennesaw State University. First row (from left) Aaron Dorbu, Patch Hearn, Owen Steele, Tristian Patterson, and Utkarsh Anand. Second row (from left) JC Bush, Katie Krump, Coach Julie Garner, and Sun Choi. Not pictured Carl Tutton.

Clayton County’s Elite Scholars Academy also earned an invitation to attend USAD’s Nationals as the overall 2nd place team in the State Competition.

For the first time, USAD is assigning national teams to divisions based on their scores. In addition to Georgia’s first and second place teams earning the opportunity to compete at in-person nationals, GAD was able to offer bids to the next-highest-scoring teams in state competition as long as the teams were in a different USAD size division than the champions. North Atlanta High School from Atlanta Public Schools, and, Davidson Fine Arts Academy from Richmond County Schools advance to national competition. This is the first appearance for Davidson.

USAD also sponsors an Online National Competition for Small, Medium, and Large Schools, based on school enrollment, held in conjunction with the national finals. The Georgia representatives in this category are:

• Westover High School from Dougherty County (Large School Online Competition)

• Model High School from Floyd County (Medium School Online Competition)

• Armuchee High School from Floyd County (Small School Online Competition)

In overall scoring, Division I (higher Round 2 scores) winners include:

• Champion — Columbus High School, coached by Julie Garner

• First Runner-up — Elite Scholars Academy, coached by C. Jack Smith

• Second Runner-up — North Atlanta High School, coached by Dr. Deanna Hasty, Dr. Usha Patke, and D’Andra McPhail

In overall scoring, Division II (lower Round 2 scores) winners include:

• Champion — Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School, coached by Melody Spires-Howe, and James Samaha

• First Runner-up — Model High School, coached by Sarah Syverson, Tara Workman, and Angelique Armas-Alvarenga

• Second Runner-up — Monroe Comprehensive High School from Dougherty County, coached by Timothy Hardwick, and David Wilschetz

Glenn Hills High School from Richmond County, coached by Lutongel Few, and Harry Desile, captured Rookie of the Year honors, awarded to the highest-scoring team making its first appearance at in-person state competition.

This year’s Highest Scoring Students are all from Columbus High School. They are:

• Varsity: JC Bush

• Scholastic: Patrick Hearn

• Honor: Owen Steele

More than 140 high school students from throughout the state competed in the academic event. The program is unique because each nine-member team is made up of three honor students, three scholastic students, and three varsity students as determined by their USAD grade point averages. Each year, the program features a different overall curriculum topic, and this year’s curriculum is Our Changing Climate. The 10 events that compose the decathlon are:

• Testing in seven content areas: economics, art, literature, mathematics, science, social science, and music

• Three communication events: public speaking, personal interview, and written essay

• Super Quiz: the final event comprised of questions from all seven of the testing areas

This year’s winners in the Super Quiz competition were:

• Champion — Columbus High School

• First Runner-up — Elite Scholars Academy

• Second Runner-up — Westover High School

Learn More About Georgia Academic Decathlon