Local Scholars Narrowly Lose National Title

In a close contest between two scholastic heavyweights, El Camino Real High School placed second Sunday in the 15th annual U.S. Academic Decathlon, losing to a team of razor-sharp rivals from Texas.

The Woodland Hills whiz kids, representing California in the two-day contest, captured at least 34 medals at an awards banquet Sunday. But they lost the overall competition by just 285 points out of a possible 60,000--a blow to the students who were viewed as the top contenders entering the event.

The winning team was from J. Frank Dobie High School of Pasadena, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Dobie scored 49,835 points, with El Camino gaining 49,550.

“It’s a hard pill to swallow,” said El Camino head coach David Roberson after El Camino watched a Dobie team capture the No. 1 spot for the second time in four years. “It was just so close.”

“I think the reason we’ve done so well all year is because we expect so much from ourselves, so this is disappointing,” said El Camino competitor Sarah Sabolek, who covered her face with her hands and wept after learning of the narrow defeat.

“It’s better than being beaten by a lot, but it’s so close that it makes me wonder how we would have finished if only I had done better in an interview or studied for another hour,” she said.

The results were announced Sunday at a hotel ballroom in Atlanta before hundreds of cheering students, parents and teachers from the 40 schools that competed in this year’s national contest.

The grueling competition took its toll on El Camino’s Matthew Backes, who collapsed shortly before the awards ceremony began.

Matthew, who hadn’t been feeling well for the past few days, had to be helped out of the ballroom.

He was examined by doctors who were relatives of his teammates at the event. Later, paramedics were called to the hotel to examine the pale youth as he sat with his head bent, sipping a glass of ice water.

“I think his nerves just got to him,” said Sharon Markenson, El Camino’s co-coach. About half an hour later, Matthew was able to rejoin his teammates in the ballroom, saying, “I’m OK.”

Other top teams included Arizona, which placed third with 46,980 points; Massachusetts, with 46,290 points for fourth place; and Alabama, which took fifth place with 45,995 points.

The Atlanta finals marked the culmination of hundreds of hours of rigorous training for El Camino’s students and coaches, who gave up hobbies, after-school jobs and time with friends since before the school year began last fall in the hope of becoming national champs.

And what a year it was.

The team began by sweeping the Los Angeles Unified School District finals in November, defeating John Marshall and Taft high schools, which have both won the national title twice. Next, El Camino flew to Fresno in March, where they captured the state championship, beating out their Southern California rivals from Orange County.

In the final leg of their brain-draining journey, they arrived in Atlanta on Wednesday to compete in the 10-event national competition, which tested them in such areas as public speaking, fine arts, math and economics.

Sunday, as the awards ceremony wore on, it became clear that the contest was between El Camino and Dobie. But the drama in the room heightened before the results were announced as students from each team took trips to the podium to collect individual medals.

The El Camino students became subdued when they failed to place in the interview and math portions of of them garnered medals in the social-studies category.

“It’s neck and neck right now,” Roberson said. “We’re not blowing anybody out.”

Across the room, their rivals from Texas were equally racked with anxiety.

“It’s not good,” said Richard Golenko, Dobie’s head coach. “It appears that California is winning more medals, but you never know for sure who’s going to win based on the medals.”

A good omen came for Golenko’s team when they were named the winners of the Super Quiz, a two-part contest comprising a multiple-choice test that the kids take in private and another round of questions answered in front of hundreds of wildly cheering family members and coaches.

El Camino tied for first place with Arizona on Saturday in the public portion of the event, but when both parts of the contest were tallied, Dobie came out on top with 5,700 points out of a possible 6,000. El Camino placed second with 5,435 points.

Awaiting the announcement of the final results, Sarah Sabolek began chewing on a piece of plastic, Justin Weaver grasped his good-luck stick and Dale Shuger clutched her stuffed raccoon, Sola. As the time neared for the top three teams to be announced, the kids from El Camino clasped hands with each other and their coaches, forming a circle around the table.

But the team discovered that the national title had eluded them again when they were named the runner-ups, triggering screams and cheers across the room as the jubilant Texans realized they had won.

“It’s not what we wanted and it wasn’t our goal,” said Dale, who won the gold medal for scoring the most points for an A-average student. “But it’s better than third, but worse than first.”

In a gesture of goodwill, Roberson and his students--who also included Kasra Torabi, Arabella David, Isis Okowita, Eldar Brodski and Jenny Stefanotty--congratulated the victors after the awards ceremony.

“My hat is off to California,” said Golenko. “What a great, great team they are. We feel lucky to have beat them.”