Moorpark High Wins Academic Decathlon : Knowledge: The school also receives the award for the most-improved score. Buena High finishes second.

Moorpark High--for the first time in its history--swept past 13 other public and private high schools Saturday to take home the winner’s trophy in Ventura County’s annual academic decathlon.

Moorpark, which also won the award for the most-improved score, racked up 42,759 points, up from about 39,600 in 1992.

“Usually, 39,000 or 40,000 wins the competition,” said Simi Valley High School Coach Rob Collins, whose team came in fourth. “That is an unbelievable score.”

Ventura’s Buena High School came in second with a score of 39,175, and Thousand Oaks took third prize with a score of 38,932.

“I’m so stoked!” said Krista Wipff, 17, a senior at Moorpark. “This is the best day of my life, I think. All the staying up late, all the going in on weekends--this makes it all worthwhile.”

As their team and its members reeled in award after award, the students, their coach and a cheering section full of fans waved yellow pompons and yelled at the top of their lungs.

During the final ceremony, announcer Steve Kingsford, assistant superintendent of the county schools office, joked, “At this time, we announce we will give no more awards to Moorpark, as they are hurting my ears.”

Saturday’s second-place winners were also ecstatic, if a bit surprised. Until the final scores were announced, most in the auditorium thought Buena would place third or even fourth. “I’m real excited!” said Jon Best, 17, a Buena senior, grinning from ear to ear. “I’m really happy we got second.”

Thousand Oaks had hoped to place at least second, having won seven out of the last 11 tournaments. Retiring Coach John Pearson and his students were not happy.

“This is a sad day for Thousand Oaks,” junior Darren Noy said mournfully.

One of the bright spots for the team, however, was senior Sommer Gentry, who won the prize for the highest individual score--7,147.

“I’m so happy, I can’t--oh, I’m just crying,” said a nearly incoherent Sommer after winning the award.

“Sommer’s studied all the time,” said her mother, Carol Gentry. “Every night, I go in her room and pull the book out from under her chin.”

Some teams began practicing as early as June--meeting weekly over the summer, then daily during the school year. They ran through exercises. They planned strategies.

And they learned a lot. They mastered calculus. They read “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens. They can identify Beethoven’s Third Symphony in a few notes. They understand every archaic term in the Magna Carta.

Brains crammed full of random as well as important facts, the more than 120 students, along with their coaches, parents and friends, turned out to test their knowledge Saturday at Dos Rios High School in Oxnard. Winning the contest means a trip to the state championship in Stockton in March.

The county event was a grueling, eight-hour-plus test on every subject from literature to physics to fine arts. The intensity was eased only by the occasional break and 10-minute intervals when students had to give speeches--planned and impromptu--before adult committees.

The day ended with a Super Quiz, held in the game show atmosphere of the school gymnasium.

But long before the clock even struck noon, the pressure was getting to some.

At 10 a.m., Moorpark High School Coach Larry Jones--also one of the school’s history teachers--paced back and forth outside the classroom doors. Coaches are barred from the competition rooms themselves.

“I feel like an expectant father,” he said, wringing his hands. “I have a group that’s worked really hard.”

For Moorpark’s group of nine competitors and two alternates, “aca deca,” as they call the competition, had become their life over the past few months.

“Like, take last Monday,” said Jones, 44. “We met in my room at lunch, then we had class, then they stayed after school for two hours, then they came to my house, and I barbecued and they studied till 10:30 p.m.”

Gabe Gonzales remembers that brand of zealousness. “The year we won, I was a nervous wreck,” recalled Buena High School’s librarian and decathlon coach. Gonzales, 46, led his team to a victory in 1990 and 1991. Last year, they edged in third, just behind Moorpark.

Gonzales admits he’s become jaded.

“Larry Jones, well, he hasn’t been to the state championships yet,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at Jones, conferring with one of his students during a break. “But see, when you win, your reward is you have to keep on working another four months, until the state competition. Everyone else gets to go home and relax.”

If some of the coaches were weary, the students were thrilled. Some to the point of nausea.

“I don’t know why I’m eating this! I’m going to throw it up!” Jennifer James, 17, of Buena High told fellow decathlon member Emily Hawkins as the two snacked on gooey cinnamon rolls during a break.

Other students said the subjects they’ve studied have taken over not merely their lives, but their thoughts. Michael Coffey, 16, a junior from Channel Islands High School, leaped frenetically around his bench at the lunch table as he described the dreams he’d been having the past week.

“I had dreams about supply and demand--you know, the curve,” he said. “I dreamt I was Gandhi too.”