Taft Students Play Catch Up to Tie for 1st in Super Quiz

Defending state champion Taft High School came from behind to tie for first place in the Super Quiz portion of the California Academic Decathlon on Friday.

Taft finished even with Palo Alto High School, scoring 38 of 45 correct answers on the oral examination, the only portion of the 10-event academic competition at Bakersfield College open to the public.

The winner of the overall competition is the team that scores the most points based on all 10 events. That team will be announced at a luncheon today, when scores on the nine written portions of the competition will be revealed. The winner will compete in the national Academic Decathlon in Providence, R.I., next month.

“I feel great,” Shawn Canter, a Taft senior, said after the big event. “Now it’s time to hit the hotel Jacuzzi.”

Knows His Presidents

Canter pulled his team into the first-place tie on the second to last Super Quiz question. He answered correctly that Richard Nixon was the President who prompted Congress to restrict certain executive powers. The Super Quiz topic this year was U.S. Presidents.

“I had a feeling about it,” said Canter, a varsity basketball player. “I must have heard it somewhere and just sort of subconsciously remembered it.”

More than 50 Taft parents and Los Angeles school officials cheered wildly after Canter pulled his team into the tie. Taft won the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Academic Decathlon in November.

“I think the team did fine,” said English teacher Arthur Berchin, Taft’s Academic Decathlon coach.

Students from 47 California high schools spent Thursday and Friday competing in the other nine events by taking written examinations in such subjects as science, mathematics, fine arts and literature. Taft students said they stayed up most of Thursday night studying.

“We studied all night because we were nervous,” said Taft senior Andy Rosenthal.

He also brought along a lucky horseshoe that was passed around by team members during the Super Quiz.

The nine members of each school’s academic decathlon team are divided among students with A, B and C grade averages.

This year, all nine members were allowed to participate. Before, there were six regular team members and three alternates.

The scores of team members placing last in each grade category will be dropped from the school’s final tally.

Finishing second in the Super Quiz was the Beverly Hills High School team that represented Los Angeles County. The third-place finisher was Fresno’s Roosevelt High School.

There were no returning members from last year’s Taft Academic Decathlon team.

That group won the state championship, but lost narrowly in the national finals to J. J. Pearce High School of Richardson, Tex.

In 1987, a team from Marshall High School in Silver Lake won both the state and national Academic Decathlon titles.