El Camino Places 4th in Academic Decathlon

El Camino High School in Woodland Hills finished fourth in the United States Academic Decathlon on Sunday, as a team from a Houston high school captured the top spot.

The victory marked the second consecutive national title for the Lone Star State in the annual competition. El Camino, representing California, captured the western region championship, finished first in the Super Quiz, and harvested 13 medals in individual events.

But the fourth-place finish was nevertheless a disappointment for the Woodland Hills school, which made its first appearance in the national event and was among the top contenders entering the contest.

“It looks like we were thoroughly beaten,” said El Camino co-coach Jeff Craig. “I’m just devastated.”

“We worked so hard,” fellow coach Mark Johnson said after the awards ceremony, his words trailing off as he was overcome by emotion.

El Camino scored 48,340 of a possible 60,000 points, finishing behind teams from Texas, Arizona and Illinois. J. Frank Dobie High School of Houston won with 49,710 points. Mountain View High School of Mesa, Ariz., collected 49,475, and Whitney Young Magnet High School of Chicago had 48,500.

Under decathlon rules, Mountain View’s third-place finish in the national competition removed the school from the western region championship, making national fourth-place finisher El Camino the winner in that bracket.

The results were announced Sunday night at the Boise convention center before an audience of 1,000 cheering students, parents, teachers and administrators, including nearly 50 El Camino supporters from Los Angeles. Teams from 47 states and the District of Columbia vied for the crown and for $30,000 in scholarships.

The three-hour awards banquet was the culmination of a year of intensive preparation and competition for El Camino, which recorded victories at the city and state levels.

But as the ceremony wore on, and as students from Texas, Arizona and Illinois trooped onstage to collect more individual awards than their California counterparts, the mood at the El Camino table became increasingly subdued. In the end, the Arizona and Texas teams garnered twice as many awards as the California team.

“It’s shellshock,” said Johnson, who has guided the El Camino decathlon team for the past five years. “We were hoping to win as many medals as Arizona and Illinois.”

“We didn’t expect to be blown away,” said Craig.

Coaches and team members knew they had finished fourth after being named the western region winners. Senior Justin Behar could not contain his disappointment.

“Fourth. Fourth,” he repeated to himself. “This is unbelievable.”

The last California team to win the top national prize was Taft High School in Woodland Hills--El Camino’s rival--in 1989. After the banquet, El Camino Principal Martin King vowed: “We’ll be back.”