How to translate 新科状元?
Like all cross-linguistic and cross-cultural translations, this requires a knowledge of the context, not just of the source material but also of the target language.
In medieval and Renaissance Western Europe, the 科举 was not &quot;a thing&quot; in the same way as in Imperial China (and East Asia), with the viva voce being more traditional. However, with greater knowledge of these practices, an accepted translation for certain terms formed, e.g. 科举 = imperial examination.
There are plenty of possible translations for 状元 which are native to English, that any good Chinese dictionary should give:

top scorer
best in class
top of the class
leading light (best applied to the world of work)

However, in most academic texts, zhuangyuan is used, in recognition of its origin.