Students from Irvine’s Lakeside Middle School recently took second place in their division at the U.S. Academic Pentathlon Championships, a rigorous national scholastic competition testing students in the arts, literature, math, science and social science.

Coached by social studies teacher Jon Pang, the Lakeside Pentathlon team featured eighth grade students Esther Ahn, Claire Karimi, Hanming Li, Katie Nagai, Brian Quinonez, Joshua Robertson, Amogh Sharma, Rudra Thakur and Yun Jen Yeh.

Pentathlon students are categorized by grade-point average, ensuring equitable opportunities for all to compete. This year marked Lakeside’s third consecutive time qualifying for the national competition and followed its second-place finish at the state competition.