STOCKTON – Manteca High competed in the 29th annual San Joaquin Academic Decathlon championship Feb. 6.

The local team finished in seventh place – out of 19 – in the event held at the University of the Pacific and the Scottish Rite Auditorium in Stockton.

The field also included Delta Charter, Edison, Escalon, Lincoln, Lodi, McNair, Middle College, Ripon, Stagg, Stockton Early College Academy, Tokay and Tracy.

Lodi, Tracy, and Middle College each fielded two teams.

The starters for Manteca were Bhanupreet Gill, Trisha Patel, Chelsea Twohy, Kaitlyn Helsey, Victor Rodriguez, Maricela Rosas, Erick Caldera, Shanna Niroumand-Zadeh, and Caitlin Pearsall.

Individually, Caldera took home gold in math and a silver medal in science while Rodriguez earned bronze medals in art and language / literature.

Other top finishers for Manteca included Gill in interview (silver), Twohy in music (bronze), Helsey in art (silver), Niroumand-Zadeh in language / literature (bronze), and Pearsall in art (silver).

Michael McCullough served as the team advisor.