Beverly Hills, Fairfax and Taft Lead in Academic Super Quiz

The questions were billed as tests of brain power and when the final answers were given, the best and brightest of the contestants turned out to be teams of students from Beverly Hills, Fairfax and Taft high schools.

In two separate Academic Decathlons on Saturday, the winning teams were among 74 high schools from throughout the county and 53 campuses of the Los Angeles Unified School District who matched wits during the day in 10 events, ranging from an impromptu speech contest to an essay on economics to a quiz on literature.

Only the winners, and unofficial at that, of the 10th and final event--known as the Super Quiz--were announced at day’s end.

The overall winners in both the county and city competitions will go on to compete in the state decathlon in Bakersfield in March. Those team names will be announced Nov. 29 at a banquet for the city school competitors and Dec. 1 at an awards ceremony for the county schools.

In the Super Quiz, the only event open to the public, each of the six-member teams answered a barrage of questions. Each query had to do with the U.S. Presidency, in honor of the 200th anniversary of the office.

Fairfax and Taft tied for first in the city schools competition. Tied for second were Camino Real and Garfield high schools. University High School’s team finished third. In the county contest, Beverly Hills was the lone winner, followed by Wilson High School from the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District in second place and the Pasadena Unified School District’s Blair High School in third.