Valley Team Optimistic About Decathlon Win

El Camino Real High School of Woodland Hills finished strong Saturday in the national academic decathlon’s oral Super Quiz, the game-show-like contest that concluded the two-day competition.

The overall winners of the annual competition to test the nation’s brightest high school students will be announced today at an awards banquet in Providence.

Despite the handicap of having only eight team members--one less than other squads--El Camino finished in sixth place. The El Camino team correctly answered 36 of 45 questions about the global economy.

But the outcome of the oral Super Quiz will play only a minor role in the naming of this year’s national champion. Although the popular event draws widespread attention, it counts for less than 5% of each of the 38 teams’ overall score.

Decathlon competitors also gave speeches, wrote essays, participated in interviews with panels of judges and took multiple choice exams, including one that was part of the Super Quiz.

El Camino team members said they felt confident about clinching a first-ever national title after two consecutive years of placing second. The high school is representing California for the third straight year.

“There’s one trophy we want to take home. I think our chances are good,” said senior Steve Chae, 18.

A team from Wisconsin won the oral Super Quiz, getting 42 of the 45 questions right. Four teams, high schoolers from New Mexico, Ohio, Arizona and Texas tied for second with 41 points each.

A high school from Massachusetts came in third with 39 points. Schools from Illinois and Mississippi, each with 38, were fourth. And schools from Tennessee, Iowa and Georgia shared fifth, each with 37 points.

Decathlon competitors celebrated the end of an arduous year leading up to the contest.

“I feel so relieved right now,” said El Camino senior Taimur Baig, 17. “Wow, it’s over.”

Carina Yuen, 17, also a senior at El Camino, welcomed the end of the competition.

“We’re going to burn all our boxes [of notes],” Yuen said. “A ritualistic cleansing of the soul.”

Chae had other ideas. “Tonight,” he said, “it’s time to party.”

Saturday’s Super Quiz drew more than 40 parents, teachers and school administrators from the Los Angeles Unified School District. They were part of a crowd of about 600 people who packed the gym at the Community College of Rhode Island, about 15 miles south of Providence.

Among the Los Angeles contingent were five administrators who had drawn criticism from teachersand parents for traveling to the competition at district expense. Several El Camino instructorswhohelped train the squad had to pay their own way.

Assistant Supt. Dan Isaacs said that he and district decathlon coordinator Jane Pollock would meet today after the awards ceremony with the El Camino coaches and the school’s principal and assistant principal.

Isaacs said the group would review funding for El Camino teachers who helped train the team.

“We really ought to do what is fair,” Isaacs said.