Moorpark High 2nd in State Decathlon

El Camino Real High School of Woodland Hills claimed a record third consecutive California Academic Decathlon title in dominating fashion Sunday, while Moorpark High scored a second-place finish, the highest ranking ever for a Ventura County school.

El Camino earned the highest score in the competition’s 19-year history and more points than any school in the nation this year.

Moorpark’s score was second best in the United States, and it gave the nine-member team the top award in the state’s Division II category--for county enrollments between 15,000 and 100,000 students--said Moorpark coach Larry Jones.

“Imagine that, tiny Moorpark beat a city like Chicago,” Jones said.

Moorpark bested its own Ventura County record, which it set in 1995 while finishing fourth in the state.

*

Simi Valley High took ninth place in the state this year. Coach Ken Hibbitts, however, said he had to explain to his students that it was actually better than past finishes in the top five.

“They added eight new wild-card teams this year, and we were one of them,” Hibbitts said. “When you look at us reaching the top 10 out of 50 schools [statewide], and you see the level of competition we faced, it’s a great achievement.”

Rebecca Wershba, a junior on the Moorpark team, agreed that competition was stiff.

“We were thrilled to get second because we knew that El Camino was likely ahead of us by several thousand points after Saturday,” she said. “Second place is just fine.”

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

*

“El Camino knew we were breathing down their necks,” Jones said, “but they’re a great school and a great group of kids. Our feeling all along was that if we tried our best and someone beat us, more power to them. We worked as hard as we could, and El Camino beat us.”

El Camino’s victory capped a monumental decathlon weekend for the school, whose team won 52 medals, clinched the Super Quiz and grabbed the spotlight during an awards ceremony that featured two standing ovations from a crowd of 1,500 as the squad collected its 4-foot-high championship trophy at the Industry Hills Sheraton hotel.

“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.

El Camino advances next month to the national Academic Decathlon finals in Providence, R.I., hoping to clinch its first-ever national title. That goal has eluded the school the last two years, when it placed second each time.

El Camino received 51,100 points out of 60,000 during the two-day 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, which won the Super Quiz for schools its size, had 48,585 points overall. Edison High School of Fresno County earned the third best overall score, with 47,260.

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.

Even schools that found themselves out of the running for the championship came away feeling victorious--among them, Orland High, a school about 100 miles north of Sacramento that 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 was extra sweet because the team competed with just eight members, one less than the other squads.

One student who helped El Camino win the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Academic 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.

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,” said senior Steve Chae, 18. “We have a good chance to take it all this year. Things are looking good.”

*

Duke Helfand is a Times staff writer and Troy Heie is a correspondent.