Torrey Pines High Wins the Academic Decathlon

Torrey Pines High School retained the county’s top scholastic bragging rights by outpointing La Jolla and Patrick Henry highs in the 1991 San Diego County Academic Decathlon.

In results announced Thursday night, the Del Mar high school racked up 43,433 points, winning its second straight title and copping the top prize for the fifth time in the last six years.

La Jolla placed second with 42,231 points--its second straight second-place finish--and Patrick Henry in the San Carlos area of San Diego was third with 41,931 points.

Forty-five high school teams from around the county participated in the competition held last Saturday.

Other major school winners in the top 10 were, in order of finish: Fallbrook; Orange Glen in Escondido; Valhalla in El Cajon; Vista; Granite Hills in El Cajon; Morse High in San Diego’s Paradise Hills and Rancho Bernardo.

The decathlon recognizes and rewards students with solid, well-rounded academic backgrounds and encourages schools to showcase their academic achievers and enjoy the glory that traditionally has come to high-school students only through athletic events.

Torrey Pines will now compete in the statewide contest in mid-March in San Bernardino. Last year, Torrey Pines finished fourth in the state, behind Laguna Hills High School in Orange County.

For academic decathlon competition, schools send a nine-member team that must include students with varied academic backgrounds. Three students must have “A” or honor averages, three must have “B” or scholastic averages, and three must have overall “C” or varsity averages in order to ensure that competition is balanced. Judging is done by volunteers selected by the San Diego County Office of Education.

Teams compete in multiple-choice tests in economics, fine arts, grammar and literature, mathematics, science and history. They also submit essays, make prepared and impromptu speeches and face an oral interview.

There is also the Super Quiz, which pits the teams against each other to measure quick recall. All Super Quiz questions this year were about “habitat Earth.”

Each team has a coach, usually a teacher who volunteers to work with the team after school and on weekends. The Torrey Pines team is coached by teachers Blaze Newman and David Zehner. Team members are Paul Grasshoff, Eugene Hung, Tal Margalith, Eugene Ryui, Marc Sharp, Sky Tandberg, Vincent Tran, Richard Wang and David Yu.

In subject competitions, Torrey Pines won in science and economics. La Jolla won in Super Quiz and mathematics, and Fallbrook was first in speech, in essay and in grammar/literature. Patrick Henry won the social science and fine arts competition, while Valhalla placed first in interviews.

The top overall student was Matthew Feigin of La Jolla, followed by Jason Hsu of Orange Glen and Marc Sharp of Torrey Pines. Feigin finished second last year.

The top scholastic student was Richard Wang of Torrey Pines, followed by Zak McClendon of Fallbrook and Patrick Carroll of Valhalla.

Orange Glen’s Joshua Bloomfield was the top varsity student, followed by Paul Grasshoff of Torrey Pines and Greg Toleno of Patrick Henry.