More than 300 students competed in the San Joaquin County Academic Decathlon, a competition that tests students’ knowledge of a certain subject and rewards college scholarships to top-scoring participants.

Lodi High School took first place overall for the third year in a row. West High School didn’t participate because no one volunteered to put a team together.

Of Tracy’s schools, only Delta Charter and Tracy high schools sent student teams. It was the second year Delta Charter took part in the contest.

Students tackle a new theme every year. This year’s challenge tested students on their knowledge of Latin America in subjects ranging from evolutionary science to mathematics, the arts and other disciplines.

The competition spanned a couple weekends — Jan. 31, Feb. 2 and last Saturday — and culminated with a Super Quiz Saturday in which students had to field questions about life sciences and biological diversity in Latin America.

Escalon High School won in the small schools category, Lodi High in the large schools, and the top-scoring student once again hailed from Escalon High School, as did the top essay and speech winners.

Tracy High student Hector Sanchez was the highest-scoring student in the scholastic category, a division of participants with grade point averages 3.0 to 3.74.

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