Laguna Hills: Academic Champ

Laguna Hills High is the new Orange County Academic Decathlon champion and will represent the county in state competition in Bakersfield in March.

Winners of the annual brainpower competition among Orange County high schools were announced Thursday night by the County Department of Education at an awards banquet.

Laguna Hills High topped Tustin’s Foothill High, a perennially strong contender, for the county championship. Foothill High won second place; Sunny Hills High of Fullerton won third, and University High of Irvine took fourth place.

Last year’s Academic Decathlon county winner, Los Alamitos High, finished fifth in team standings this year. Foothill High won the championship 3 years in a row before losing to Los Alamitos last year.

“This was a very exciting competition this year,” said Sharon Nelson, instructional program assistant with the Department of Education. “The team scores were very close, and we had some very excited kids.”

Instructors Kathy Lane and Roger Gunderson were the coaches for the championship Laguna Hills High team.

The Orange County competition was held Dec. 10 at Sunny Hills High, but results were not announced until Thursday night.

High school teams must be equally composed of A-average, B-average and C-average students. They compete in 10 academic events: economics, essays, fine arts, interviews, literature-language, mathematics, science, social science, speech and the “super quiz.”

The “super quiz,” which is the focal event of the competition, was won Dec. 10 by the team from Sunny Hills High. Edison High of Huntington Beach was second in the “super quiz,” and Foothill High, Laguna Hills High, Trabuco Hills High and Troy High of Fullerton were in a four-way tie for third place.