SAN ANTONIO — After coming out on top in the region as back-to-back champs, the Academic Decathalon team at John Marshall High School did one better and placed second in the state this year.
KENS 5 spoke with the students about their success, as well as their thoughts on James Holzhauer's incredible ongoing run on "Jeopardy!"
"I can answer a couple of the questions and sometimes I'm like, 'How did they not get it?' But most the time I have no idea," said junior Collin Ward.
"It's a way to expand my knowledge and learn new facts and trivia," senior Matthew Gil added.
So how do they feel about being super smart?
"These are the smartest people on campus, and the fact that I am one of those smartest people on campus...it just feels great," junior Elisa Lopez said.
For senior Adriana Vela, the team's success is validation, saying, "Now I finally get to prove myself with my awards and achievements."
[We decided to make sure the team truly earned their runner-up finish by putting them to the test in this special edition of KENS 5 "Jeopardy!" Watch below]
For senior Kenton Romero, meanwhile, the knowledge gained along the way is priceless.
"For me, being super interested in science, we learned a lot about the science and the building of lasers," Romero said.
All of those smarts, helped them win these awards.
"We studied very, very hard to get that first place at Regionals, and to see that and to actually achieve that was something that I didn't think we could actually do," senior Abigail Ostmo said.
"Once we got to state we studied really hard," said senior class salutatorian Devin Geelhoed. "And we finished second as a runner up for the entire state of Texas."