Competition Getting Closer in Annual Event : Beverly Hills Wins 5th Academic Title

Beverly Hills High School prevailed over 59 other schools and captured its fifth consecutive gold medal as awards were announced Sunday in the Los Angeles County Academic Decathlon.

The 5-year-old annual competition tests students in mathematics, science, social studies, fine arts, language and literature, economics and essays. The exams were given Nov. 15.

“The competition is getting closer. In previous years, Beverly Hills had won, but they won by bigger margins,” said Bob Grossman, director of communications for the Los Angeles County Office of Education, which hosted the event. “This year was a lot more competitive, which everybody feels good about.”

In previous years, Beverly Hills team members also had dominated the individual awards, but more schools were represented in those categories this year, Grossman said.

About 1,100 people attended Sunday’s luncheon ceremony in Montebello, in which top students and teams were given trophies.

The top 10 teams in the high school decathalon included, in order: Beverly Hills, Palos Verdes, West High of Torrance, La Canada, Miraleste and Rolling Hills of Palos Verdes, Burbank, Claremont, South High of Torrance and Cerritos.

Three Categories

Each team consisted of two students from each of three categories: honors, scholastic and varsity which generally represents A, B and C grade students, respectively.

Winners in those categories were: Gloria Park of Burbank, Michael Mitzenmacher of Palos Verdes and Soo Kim of Burroughs High School in Burbank in the honors category; Marnie Friedman of Palos Verdes, Alan Goldstein of Miraleste High School in Palos Verdes and Alex Rapoport of Beverly Hills in the scholastic category, and Sean Butterworth of West High, Daniel Bruce Landau of Rolling Hills and Cristina Osmena of Beverly Hills in the varsity category.

The first-place Beverly Hills team will compete at the upcoming California Academic Decathlon.

For the last three years, the Beverly Hills team has won the state gold and the national silver medals.

Player’s on this year’s team include: Chen Koung Dong, Jordan Fishman, James Nivatpumin, Alex Rapoport, Jacob Kotzubei and Cristina Osmena, and alternates Gary Brown, Avigdorah Berlin and Jenji Kohan. They were coached by Jane Wortman and Bonnie Miller.

Award winners in the Los Angeles city schools competition will be announced Dec. 3.