El Camino Real Dominates at Decathlon

El Camino Real High School of Woodland Hills claimed a record third straight California Academic Decathlon title in dominating fashion Sunday, earning the highest score in the competition’s 19-year history and more points than any school in the nation this year.

The victory capped a monumental decathlon weekend for El Camino, whose team won 52 medals, clinched the Super Quiz and collected its 4-foot-high championship trophy at the Industry Hills Sheraton hotel. A crowd of 1,500 at the awards ceremony greeted the team with two standing ovations.

“Top of the world, man,” said 17-year-old senior Adi Zarchi, as he shook with excitement, six medals clanging around his neck. “It’s so sweet, man.”

Zarchi and his fellow Conquistadors whooped it up and gave each other high fives--some still holding small cans of Spam they had agreed to eat had they lost--as fellow competitors and parents swarmed them with cameras and handshakes on a stage inside a hotel ballroom.

“King of the hill,” senior Taimur Baig, also 17, called out.

“We’re going to nation,” junior Nancy Fu, 17, said, tears streaming down her face. “All I wanted to do was go to nation.”

El Camino advances next month to the national decathlon finals in Providence, R.I., hoping to clinch the national title that has eluded the school the last two years, when it placed second each time. The school has never won a national title.

El Camino received the top score of 51,100 points out of 60,000 during the two-day state decathlon at Cal Poly Pomona. In all, 453 students from across the state took written tests, gave speeches, wrote essays and answered rapid-fire questions in the Super Quiz--all on this year’s decathlon theme: “Globalization: The New Economy.”

Moorpark High School in Ventura County placed second, with 48,585 points. Edison High School in Fresno County earned the third best overall score, with 47,260 points.

Rounding out the top 10 schools were Alemany High in Mission Hills (representing Southern California private schools), West High School in Torrance, Garfield High in East Los Angeles, Clovis West High in Fresno County, Burbank High, Simi Valley High and Bella Vista High in Sacramento County.

“It’s an incredible feeling,” said Moorpark High senior Vanessa Mancinelli, 17, who won a gold medal in one of the several categories for highest individual scores. “It’s been such an uphill battle getting here because of the amount of work required.”

Garfield High members, who won the oral portion of the Super Quiz on Saturday but dropped to sixth overall by the end of the competition, declared their effort a success.

“Sixth place out of 50 schools isn’t bad,” said senior Deirdra Martinez, 17, whose team walked away with a gold medal for their Super Quiz effort. “We really wanted a team medal. It was very satisfying.”

Even schools that found themselves out of the running for the championship came away feeling victorious--among them, Orland High, about 100 miles north of Sacramento, which placed 48th.

“Hey, we beat two schools,” said Orland senior Kelly Spitz, 18, whose town has two stoplights and counts prune and pecan farming among its major industries. “For such a small school, we’re just happy to be here. We accomplished a lot.”

For El Camino, the accomplishment tasted extra sweet because the team competed with just eight members, one fewer than the other squads.

One student who helped El Camino win the Los Angeles Unified School District’s decathlon last month dropped out because she could not maintain the grueling schedule of up to 50 hours of study each week--including 10-hour group sessions on Saturdays.

But the loss of the student did not seem to faze the El Camino squad.

Its members won the highest individual scores among counties with more than 100,000 high school students. Junior Nancy Fu earned another distinction, receiving the highest score among all 453 decathletes, and with 9,147 points out of 10,000 points, the only student to break the 9,000 barrier.

“You are so awesome, Fu,” El Camino coach Mark Johnson told his ace student, as she learned that she had the highest score. “Just amazing.”

The El Camino team also included seniors Michael Beatty, Bruce Ngo, Elana Pelman, Carina Yuen, all 17, Steve Chae, 18, and co-coach Dave Roberson.

By the end of Sunday’s awards ceremony, El Camino’s competitors offered nothing but praise.

“All the schools came here knowing that El Camino was going to nationals,” Belmont High senior Alexander Lee said as he shook hands with several members of the El Camino team. “All the schools came here for fun. El Camino meant business.”

Some of the El Camino team members found themselves breathless from the shower of compliments. They were not ready to speak about a dynasty, not with nationals around the corner. But the state decathlon, they agreed, was a big boost for their confidence.

“We came close last year at nationals,” Chae said. “We have a good chance to take it all this year. Things are looking good.”