Marshall Upsets Taft for Decathlon Title : Academics: Team captures the citywide victory over the Woodland Hills squad, the defending national champion.

Months of study and grueling preparation paid off Tuesday night for a team of nine students from Marshall High School when they won the Los Angeles Unified School District Academic Decathlon, upsetting Taft High of Woodland Hills.

The overall decathlon victory over 54 other teams citywide followed Marshall’s previously announced win in the Super Quiz, one of the decathlon’s 10 academic events.

Taft was the national grand champion last year, but Marshall had not won a city championship since 1986, when the school went on to win the state and national titles. Marshall also placed first in city competition in 1985.

Dale Shuger from El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills was the overall individual high scorer, with 8,921 out of a possible 10,000 points in the honors category.

The awards were announced to a crowd of about 500 competitors and 700 coaches, parents and friends, during a nerve-racking and often uproarious banquet in the balloon-festooned California Ballroom of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel.

“It feels really good, “ said Linda Sui, who returned to the Marshall team after placing second in last year’s competition. “I think I want to go home and jump around for a few hours.”

“My excitement came from July to now because I got to work with the students, so I have rewards every day,” said Marshall coach Phil Chase, who was voted decathlon coach of the year in 1992.

“Their awards are tonight and I am really thrilled for the team,” he said.

Marshall scored 49,818 of a possible 60,000 points to clinch the title. El Camino Real followed with 47,336 points, and University High placed third with 45,741.

Taft placed fourth with 44,547 points.

Shuger, the individual points winner, who stands 4-feet-10, was nearly hidden by her enormous trophy. She made her way carefully from the stage juggling the 10 medals and three plaques she had won so far, along with a toy raccoon she carried for luck.

A few weeks ago, Shuger, a junior, said she would not return next year for another year of competition, but kneeling by her awards she seemed to have a change of heart.

“This is pretty good bribery,” she said.

Most teams consist of nine members, evenly divided among A (honor), B (scholastic), and C (varsity) students. Medals and scholarships were presented to each of the top performers in each of the three decathlon categories.

The Academic Decathlon is an amalgam of 10 events: six written exams in subjects such as fine arts, literature and science; speech and essay contests; an interview; and the high-profile Super Quiz, the finale of the decathlon.

This year’s Super Quiz, held Nov. 19 at the L.A. Convention Center, challenged students with questions from the field of biotechnology. A strong showing at the Super Quiz, while no guarantee of an overall victory, is almost always an indication of a high placing at the awards’ banquet.

Marshall won seven of the 10 decathlon events and achieved the highest Super Quiz score in the city decathlon history.

Other members of the championship Marshall team are: Paul Auerbach, James Evrard, Douglas Kleven, Elsie Lau, Sung Lee, Masaki Miyagawa, Steve Na and Ann Rose Van.

Marshall’s victory was a final disappointment to the Taft High School team, who were seeking a third consecutive city title, but saw the first harbinger of defeat in a lackluster Super Quiz finish earlier this month. Last year, Taft went on from the city championship to win the state and national competitions, setting team and individual records at each event.

Marshall’s victory means the team is headed for the statewide decathlon in Fresno next March.

“We’re going to be behind Marshall 100% at state,” said Stephen Salter, a Taft team member whose brother was a member of the Taft national championship team last year. “We are still going to be at state to support them, and we will be in Chicago too.”

Salter said he was pleased to have received an honorable mention for his total overall score.

Joining Taft in the state finals will be Los Angeles County champions West High, which earlier Tuesday scored 47,011 points to beat out silver medalist Diamond Bar and bronze finisher Palos Verdes Peninsula. West High won by a decisive 3,200-point margin.

Teams from Southern California have dominated the state finals for more than a decade.

In April, the winner of the state competition will go on to compete for the national title in Chicago.

David Liu, an honor student from Palos Verdes Peninsula High, was the overall individual winner in the county with 8,476 points. He eked out his gold medal win by scoring 51 points more than silver medal winner Chi-Hua Chien, also from Palos Verdes Peninsula. David Liu of West High placed third.