Taft Warms Up for Next Decathlon : Academics: Hopes of repeating its national success in a scholastic contest come a step closer in a preliminary competition. A citywide meet is Nov. 17.

Taft High School, which two years ago earned national recognition and appearances on “The Tonight Show” after winning the U.S. Academic Decathlon, took a first step Monday to repeating the feat.

The Woodland Hills team outscored seven other San Fernando Valley high schools in a practice version of the Academic Decathlon, which tests students in subjects such as math, science, music and fine arts.

The scrimmage was a warm-up for the citywide battle Nov. 17, which is expected to draw more than 50 teams representing high schools throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District. The winner of that contest will compete in the state Academic Decathlon in March.

“I want the team to celebrate tonight and then come in tomorrow to study as if we had finished last,” said Michael Wilson, Taft decathlon team coach and humanities teacher.

The team members whooped and hollered throughout the practice contest at Reseda High School. Besides the usual math, economics and science questions, students this year are also responsible for knowing about post-World War II fine arts and music, science-fiction literature and space exploration.

The result is a Trivial Pursuit-era sort of study that prompted such questions during the scrimmage as “What was the first Beatles song released in the U.S.?” (“I Want to Hold Your Hand”). And, “Who was the first American to walk in space?” (Ed White).

Students are also studying the work of artist Andy Warhol, composer Aaron Copland, author Ursula LaGuin, as well as the Supremes and Bob Dylan.

For the past three years Valley teams have won the district contest, two state titles and one national title.

On Monday, Taft team member Eylon Stroh, 16, brought his team from behind by answering the last eight questions, beating second-place finishers El Camino Real and Reseda high schools.

“I knew the stuff cold,” said Stroh, an Israeli immigrant who earned a perfect 800 score on the mathematics portion of his Scholastic Aptitude Test.

By contest rules, each of the high school’s nine-member teams are divided evenly among students with A, B and C grade averages. The teams study after school and on weekends.

Taft High School won the state title in spring of 1988 but lost in the national contest to a team from Texas. A year later, the Taft team won the U.S. title and earned a wave of publicity that included television appearances with Johnny Carson and meetings with former President Ronald Reagan and Gov. George Deukmejian.

The celebrity status earned by the national champion Taft team spurred interest in the academic competition, which became a nationwide event in 1981.

Last year, El Camino Real narrowly beat Taft in the district contest, later finishing second in the state contest to Laguna Hills High School from Orange County.