El Camino Real Wins Decathlon Super Quiz

The Academic Decathlon team from El Camino Real High School won the annual Super Quiz on Saturday night, placing the Woodland Hills school in good position to hold on to its title as city champion.

Last year, the school’s team went on to also capture the state Academic Decathlon title.

Second place in this year’s Super Quiz, sponsored by the Los Angeles Unified School District, went to Los Angeles High School and third to Garfield High School of East Los Angeles.

Two perennial powers in the competition--Taft High School of Woodland Hills and Marshall High School of Los Feliz--failed to place in the Super Quiz. Both are former national decathlon winners.

The grueling quiz was the final event in the daylong city Academic Decathlon, and it was the only part of the competition open to the public.

The final results of this year’s decathlon will not be known until after the results from the full day’s roster of essay writing, speeches and other events, in addition to the Super Quiz, are tallied. Those results are scheduled to be announced Nov. 26.

But the winner of the quiz is traditionally viewed as the front-runner.

When Super Quiz results were announced Saturday, they brought cheers from El Camino team members and hundreds of their fellow students, friends and family members gathered for the event at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

“I’m ecstatic,” said El Camino team member Robert Magee. “It makes all the work worth it.”

“Finally, all the pressure is off,” added teammate Michael Montgomery. “This is a relief.”

District officials also praised the strong showing by Los Angeles High School.

“City schools have come to realize that they can do very well,” district spokesman Shel Erlich said. “It also shows the strength of the schools that are not in the suburbs.”

But the disappointed Los Angeles High coach compared his team’s loss to a commercial shown during the 1996 Olympic Games.

“You don’t win the silver, you lose the gold,” said coach Jim Hatem. He praised his team, however, and saluted their hard work that resulted in a high-ranked finish.

The theme for this year’s competition was “The Information Revolution.”

During the Super Quiz, team members were asked technology-based questions that touched on hackers, computer chips and ancient Greece.

The winner of the local decathlon will advance to the state decathlon, to be held at Cal Poly Pomona in March.

In addition to the LAUSD contest, 60 public schools from throughout Los Angeles County competed in a separate decathlon won by Alhambra High School.