Canyon Crest Academy Wins Academic League Championship

Students from Canyon Crest Academy used their expansive knowledge to win the title of countywide Academic League champions during the final rounds of the competition today.

The county's brightest students from four high school teams went head-to-head at the semifinal and final rounds, which included questions about everything from Taylor Swift and Frazier to waterfalls of the world and complex math equations. 

In the final round, the students at Canyon Crest Academy had a healthy competition with University City High School for the countywide championship. The final score was 590 to 355.

The students thanked their parents and their coach after the win. 

“I’ve been on Academic League team for four years," said team captain Nandana Mahdukara. "it’s really nice to finish it off like this.”

Coach Brian Shea said he was proud of the students on his team.

"We’ve been working so hard," he added. "This is the culmination of four years. They graduate in five days, so they’re super excited."

Academic League is a lightning-fast, team game similar to Jeopardy. High schools that participate in the Academic League put together teams that compete in four regional leagues across the county. Once league winners are selected, the champs of each league face off until the San Diego County Academic League champion team emerges.

SDCOE has supported the event for more than four decades to create opportunities for students to highlight their knowledge, celebrate academic success, and compete for their schools. 

For the second consecutive year, the finals will be led by a student host. This time, Blaze Rice — a senior at Kearny High School — took the mic. 

"I'm incredibly excited and grateful for the opportunity to be a host for this year's Academic League!" he said. "I'm working alongside an incredible crew of people to make sure that this year is going to be great!"

The format features questions from moderator Mark Heinze, which cover a wide variety of topics and subjects including science, literature, history, math, and music. Five students play on each team at a time, with substitutions allowed during timeouts, buzzing in to answer questions. Many questions are toss-ups, where the first team to ring in and correctly answer earns points; if the team answers correctly, they receive a bonus question worth more points. Points are deducted for incorrect answers to toss-up questions, and the other team then has three seconds to answer the question correctly.

How to Watch the Competition

Replays of the semifinal and final matches will be broadcast on iTV Cable 16 (available on Cox, Spectrum, or AT&T) at the following times or you can watch online.

• Semifinal 1 will air May 24 at 5 p.m.
• Semifinal 2 will air May 24 at 6 p.m.
• Championship will air May 25 at 5 p.m.