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WOODLAND HILLS : Gov. Wilson to Honor Taft High Champions

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The national champions from the Taft High School Academic Decathlon team are being feted again--this time by the governor.

The nine students and their coach, Arthur Berchin, are heading to Sacramento on May 23 for a daylong series of meetings and events.

In the morning, the group will be introduced to the Senate and the Assembly. Then, after a lunch at Frank Fat’s restaurant--a famous politico’s haunt--they are scheduled to meet with Gov. Pete Wilson.

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The Taft teen-agers earned the school its second first-place title last month in Newark, N. J., beating teams from 41 states and the District of Columbia. In addition to accumulating the top score in the 10-subject competition, the team also claimed more than half of the $30,000 in scholarships awarded to individual high scorers.

In taking the Los Angeles Unified School District title in November and claiming the state honors in Stockton in March, the students studied hundreds of hours--working through weekends, late nights and school vacations.

The students still have one aspiration before they head off to college in the fall: They want to meet the President. Last year, they noted, the Taft team that won a second-place title was invited to the White House.

“They definitely want to go to see the President,” said Judy Combs, the executive director of the California Academic Decathlon.

Competing for Taft were: Daniel Berdichevsky, 17; Chris Huie, 17; Michael Michrowski, 17; Sheldon Peregrino, 18; Rebecca Rissman, 17; Andrew Salter, 17; Kimberly Shapiro, 16; Stephen haw, 16; and Sage Vaughn, 17. All are seniors except Shaw, a junior.

The group will also be honored next Tuesday by the Woodland Hills Chamber of Commerce, which will award each student a $100 savings bond. For more information about that 11:30 a.m. luncheon at the Warner Center Marriott, call the chamber office at 347-4737.

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