It was a memorable day for Manteca High.

At the 38th annual Academic Decathlon held Saturday at Lathrop High, Solman Aniss delivered a rare perfect 1,000 score in the gold-medal speech competition.

“He was the star of the day,” said MHS advisor Michael McCullough of his Stanford-bound senior.

Aniss, who was competing in the Honors Division – that’s for those with high grade point averages – gave an inspiring speech to those in attendance at the 12-team event hosted once again by the San Joaquin County Office of Education.

The theme was the era of “The Sixties.”

According to McCullough, Aniss collected seven individual medals, including the overall high score from the speech that netted him a $1,500 scholarship.

“It was an outstanding day,” he added. “Clearly memorable – we had a small group of eight students who pulled together.”

MHS senior Arturo Avila also scored big with five medals while placing second at the varsity level in speech. He won a $200 scholarship for his efforts.

Sophomore Ravpreet Grewall also placed, taking third in the scholastic (middle level) division to go with a gold and two other medals coupled with a $100 scholarship.

Senior Samuel Roy medaled twice while senior Kevin Nguyen and junior Kiersten Melan had one medal each.

“Even out alternates got in on the scoring,” said McCullough, who recognized sophomore Megan Pangburn (three medals), Kerren Zhou (two medals) and Kayson Neduvakkattu (one medal).

The Academic Decathlon events consisted of Art, Econ, Essay, Interview, Language, Mathematics, Music, Science, Social Science and Speech.

As a team, Manteca placed second, finishing behind Middle College. Stockton Early College Academy was third followed by Lathrop High.

In the Super Quiz, Manteca and Lathrop took second and third, respectively, with Middle College grabbing the top spot.