Students from Turlock Junior High School raked in the awards at the  Stanislaus County Office of Education’s 9th Annual Academic Pentathlon held last Saturday in Modesto.

TJHS team members collected eight individual medals and placed fourth overall, outscoring several teams representing Stanislaus County public schools.

“Our team has been preparing for this competition since November,” said 7th grade language arts teacher and team coach Wes Taylor.  “I am extremely proud of the students who participated.  The dedication and effort are commendable and it really showed during the competition.”

Academic Pentathlon teams compete in five subject areas including math, essay writing, language arts, science and social studies.

“Five of our students won medals and out of those students we had several of them placing in more than one category,” said Taylor.  “Being my first year coaching my team I could not be more proud of these students.  I went into this competition with no expectations and I am content with the outcome.”

Participating schools sent a total of nine members to serve as a core team, three students, in each of three categories, based on grade point average.  The categories include Honors, 3.75-4.00 GPA; Scholastic, 3.00-3.74 GPA; and Varsity, 0.00-2.99 GPA. 

Denair Middle School was also recognized during the Academic Pentathlon with 8th grade student Libby Martinez receiving top scores in language and literature.