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Chardon Academic Decathlon team earns bid to first National Competition since 2017
March 20, 2025 (CHARDON, OH) — The Chardon High School Academic Decathlon team has earned an invitation to its first national competition since 2017.
The invitation to the United States Academic Decathlon Online National Competition comes after the team’s successful showing at state competition at John Carroll University earlier this month. At that competition, the team came away with 16 medals including a silver and three golds in Interview and two gold medals in Speech, highlighting Chardon’s long tradition of strength in the interpersonal events.
In the Speech event, where competitors perform timed, prepared and impromptu speeches in front of judges and a group of their peers, Senior Connor Mosher was awarded a near perfect score of 995 out of 1,000. This was 25 points higher than anyone else in the competition and is the highest speech score ever posted by a Chardon student. Connor was asked to give his speech a second time during the awards ceremony in a packed auditorium as a "speech showcase" where of course, he brought down the house!
“It has been an honor and a privilege to coach the diverse groups of students who have made up the CHS Academic Decathlon teams over these past 14 years and I look forward to following their continued success in the future,” Chardon ACADEC Coach Al Herner said.
Herner said CHS has only been invited to national competition twice in recent memory, in 2013 and 2017.
Our Hilltopper ACADEC team will be competing in the Online National Competition on April 16 and May 2.
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