Taft 2nd in Academic Decathlon : Contest: In national event, team comes agonizingly close to victory. Texas school wins for fourth year in a row.

In an agonizingly close finish, a team from Taft High School in Woodland Hills came in second in the United States Academic Decathlon on Sunday, bowing to a powerful team from Texas in the prestigious national competition.

The nine-student Taft squad was edged out by 413 points out of a possible 60,000--the equivalent of about two correct answers in the high-stakes Super Quiz portion of the contest.

“We did a great job. We didn’t lose it; they beat us,” said Taft student Robert Shaw, 17. The Texas crew won the Lone Star State its fourth consecutive U.S. title.

The Taft team notched an overall score of 47,072, behind Plano East Senior High School with 47,485, and ahead of Mountain View High School in Arizona, which compiled 46,867 points.

“I’m proud to come in second,” said team captain Chris Hoag, 18. “It was really close. You can say ‘what if,’ but there’s nothing more we could have done.”

Taft students collected 19 individual medals in subjects from fine arts to chemistry and speech. The group also took home a second-place plaque in the Super Quiz round. And three of them won a total of $10,000 in scholarships for their performances in the three-day tournament, which pitted Taft, the California champion, against teams from 42 other states and the District of Columbia.

Sunday’s results were announced at a luncheon before hundreds of screaming parents and school officials. It capped intensive training and preparations that began in August.

“I’m very proud of them,” coach Michael Wilson said of his team, which had hoped to recapture the national crown Taft won in 1989. In the 12-year history of the event, a team from either Texas or California has won every title.

*

The decathlon tests students in six academic disciplines and requires them to give speeches, submit to interviews, write essays and take the Super Quiz--a rowdy game-show-like event with contestants answering questions on stage in front of a cheering audience.

It was an especially moving ceremony for Mara Weiss, 17, the only girl among the nine seniors who made up the Taft team. At city and state contests this year, her individual score was the lowest among the squad’s three “A” students.

(Each decathlon team is made up of three groups of students with grade point averages of “A”, “B” and “C.”)

But in the national finals, Weiss outpaced all of her teammates and earned a $3,000 scholarship as the second-highest-scoring “A” student in the competition.

“We know how hard she worked from state to nationals, so this is awesome for her,” Hoag said. He and his teammates gasped, then stood and cheered when Weiss’ name was announced as the team’s top finisher.

Weiss’ hand fluttered to her mouth in surprise, and tears filled her eyes.

“I can’t believe this,” Weiss said. “It must’ve been really close. . . . I never expected this in a million years.”

The team got another surprise when Adam Caress, 17, was declared the highest-scoring “B” student--which carries a $5,000 prize. Team member Leonard An, 17, who won three more medals than Caress, was expected to win.

The individual awards were gratifying, Caress said, “but it’s a total team effort. That’s what got us here.”

At the awards luncheon, the students--seated around the table in precisely the same order as at other awards banquets, to bring good luck--gnawed on their green cloth napkins instead of their chicken entrees, and waited anxiously.

“I’m starting to feel faint,” Wilson said, his hands shaking. An English teacher at Taft, he has guided the decathlon team for four years, reaching his first national final this year.

As the top three schools were counted down, team members clutched one another’s hands. Some laid their heads on the table. Nearly all closed their eyes.

Then, when their second-place finish was announced, the Taft team stood in unison and shook hands with their victorious Texas competitors, who sat at a table across from them.

*

Now they can turn their attention to long-neglected classwork--and their pre-decathlon lives, Hoag said. “I’m going to reintroduce myself to my friends and figure out what it means to have a social life.”

“Now I can talk to her again after six months of exile,” Lew Weiss said, speaking of his daughter.

And what to do with the study guides, sample tests and notes?

“We’ve been having jokes about a bonfire,” Bronstein said.