Taft High Repeats Win in Academic Decathlon : Education: The Woodland Hills school collects its second straight state title. National competition is next month.

For the second consecutive year, a team of students from Taft High School of Woodland Hills claimed the mantle of California’s best and brightest Sunday, winning the state Academic Decathlon.

The Taft team, representing the Los Angeles Unified School District, out-tested its Los Angeles County rival, West High School of Torrance, which finished second. Orange County’s Laguna Hills High School was third.

Taft’s win earned the San Fernando Valley school its fourth state championship since the contest began 15 years ago. The nine-member team will represent California in the national competition next month.

“Today, we shook Stockton,” said Taft senior Daniel Berdichevsky, 17, who took the gold medal for the highest overall score in the 10-event contest, earning 8,937 points out of a possible 10,000. “I feel exhilarated.”

The victory was also a welcome back gift for Taft Coach Arthur Berchin, who had left decathlon training four years ago after leading the 1989 Taft team to the national title.

More than 70 Taft parents, friends and district administrators cheered as team members raked in 12 gold medals for individual events, 11 silver and seven bronze. The school scored 48,974 points of a possible 60,000; West High’s tally was 46,278.

It was also a boost for the city’s beleaguered school district, which fared poorly in state test scores released last week.

More than 375 students representing 43 California regions joined in the battle of brains that began Friday at the University of the Pacific. The first day included written tests in math, fine arts, economics, science, literature and social studies.

Students were back Saturday morning with essay writing, prepared and impromptu speeches, as well as interviews with judges.

At Sunday’s awards luncheon, Taft students nervously twittered at the table. Team members Sage Vaughn, 16, and Sheldon Peregrino, 18, created sculptures out of their water glasses and lunch remnants. Rebecca Rissman, 17, parked her elbows on the table and wrung her hands.

“This is torture,” Vaughn said.

When it came, the announcement could hardly be heard over the cheers of Taft supporters.

“We’re so proud,” said Jill Shapiro, whose 16-year-old daughter, Kimberly, took two individual event medals for the team. “They’re all great. We love them all.”

West High coach George Floratos said he was proud of his students even though he was disappointed by the school’s 0-4 record at the state competition.

“One of these times we’re going to win it,” Floratos said. “But Taft was a super team and a neat bunch of kids.”

Also competing for Taft were Chris Huie, 17, who took home seven individual medals; Andrew Salter, 17, who finished second overall; Michael Michrowski, 17, who garnered three medals, and Stephen Shaw, 16, the team’s only junior, who won four medals.

The victory means only a short break before they begin preparing for next month’s national competition in New Jersey. “I think we get a few days off before we start studying again,” Kimberly Shapiro said. “We only have a month left.”