COUNTYWIDE : Buena High Wins Academic Event

For the second year in a row, Buena High School beat Thousand Oaks High to win the county’s Academic Decathlon.

Buena High scored 42,040 points, setting a county record in the event.

Thousand Oaks earned 41,144 points. Moorpark High finished third and Simi Valley High placed fourth in the competition at Oxnard’s Rio Mesa High School.

Buena and Thousand Oaks have been among the top county high schools competing for the championship in recent years, with Thousand Oaks winning from 1986 to 1989.

Last year, however, Buena edged out Thousand Oaks by 53 points.

In Saturday’s competition, Buena increased its winning margin, outscoring Thousand Oaks by 896 points.

Buena will represent the county in the state finals in March.

“We knocked off Thousand Oaks last year, so we knew they’d come back looking for revenge,” said Gabriel Gonzales, Buena librarian and decathlon coach. But Buena’s high score surprised even the team, he said.

Students from each of the 13 public and private high schools participating in the competition Saturday were tested in nine subject areas, including a 10-minute speech and an interview based on information previously provided to test officials.

The final event, a showdown Super Quiz, was held before a crowd of cheering parents and students.

The participants answered questions on environmental science, a previously selected subject.

Thousand Oaks tied with Moorpark High in the Super Quiz.

Moorpark also won awards for best performance of a school under 1,500 students and for most improved school. For Moorpark, which two years ago had no decathlon team, the awards were the result of weeks of hard work, said coach Larry Jones, a history teacher.

“We started the first day of school. We worked holidays, after school. We stayed till 9 p.m. We gave up Sundays,” Jones said. “I had a real dedicated, hard-working group of kids on my hands.”