Simi High Aims for the Top in Tight Decathlon Race

Simi Valley High School tied for second place--one point behind its San Fernando Valley archrivals--Saturday in the public question-and-answer portion of the tension-filled Super Quiz at the California Academic Decathlon.

El Camino Real High School, the defending state champion from Woodland Hills, was targeted by Simi’s scholastic decathlon team when the competition began this weekend.

But after Saturday’s Super Quiz, El Camino Real shared first place with a Fresno County high school, barely ahead of Simi and two other schools knotted in second place. Simi tied with another San Fernando Valley school, Alemany High of Mission Hills and Trabuco Hills High School from Orange County.

Simi Valley High has been gunning to dethrone El Camino Real for the state champ seat since it won the regional competition last year. Each time the team answered a Super Quiz question correctly, team members erupted in cheers.

“We really want to beat El Camino, really bad,” said Simi decathlete Donny Kim, “and now we’re in a good position to get it, I think.”

Officials said the finish was one of the closest in the 18-year history of the state academic tournament and that pinpointing a winner solely from the Super Quiz would be hard. The top five schools beat out 38 others in the Super Quiz’s public portion, in which students from each team take turns trying to answer 10 questions correctly as their friends and family cheer them on.

“It varies. Sometimes the Super Quiz winner is the overall winner and sometimes they’re not,” said Judy Combs, director of the state competition. “These teams try really hard, and Super Quiz is something they work on because it’s a public event.”

El Camino could still win the entire state tournament, as it did last year. Point totals--and the decathlon’s overall winner--will be announced at an awards banquet today. If the Woodland Hills students are victorious, it will be the second year in a row that they garner the state title. El Camino was also the state decathlon champion in 1992.

Last year, El Camino won the state championship after placing second to Laguna Hills High School in the public Super Quiz.

Simi Valley High took fifth place in last year’s state tournament.

A Ventura County team has never captured top state honors; they are often snagged by powerhouse Academic Decathlon teams from Los Angeles or Orange counties.

“I was nervous up in the bleachers watching the others compete, but once I got down here I was in control,” said senior Nicholas Braggs, who helped boost his team to second place with a perfect score in the high-stakes relay section.

“I think we can probably catch [El Camino Real High] on the written quiz with the score we have now.”

Decathlete Christian Milan said, “I got little signals from people when they got answers right so I knew we were in a good place.” Milan also scored a perfect 10 for his section of the contest.

“Right now we’re doing pretty well, but there’s still the written portion to worry about. We’ll have to wait and see about that.”

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El Camino’s team--and Edison High School of Fresno County--received 57 out of a possible 60 points. Alemany High, Simi High and Trabuco Hills followed with 56 points. For Alemany, a Catholic school and the only private school in the competition, the second-place finish was a wake-up call to rival public schools.

“We’re making our point that we’re here to win and we’re not going to leave quietly,” said Alemany decathlete Penelope Ceja.

The two-part Super Quiz was the final and most grueling event in the two-day tournament. The first section included a written multiple-choice test. The second half--the only section open to the public--was a rowdier, college bowl-like competition.

This year’s Super Quiz topic was “The Information Revolution--Communication and Culture.” Students were peppered with 30 multiple-choice questions that included: “Which department of the federal government funded the development of the Internet?”

As part of the entire competition, the nine-member teams took written exams in economics, fine arts, literature, math, science and social sciences. They also delivered impromptu and prepared speeches, wrote essays and participated in interviews with a panel of judges.

The winner of the state Academic Decathlon will go on to the national championship, which will be held April 18-20 in St. George, Utah.