Simi Finishes 2nd in National Competition

Simi Valley High School fell short Sunday in its bid to win the national title in the United States Academic Decathlon, placing second out of 38 teams and winning dozens of individual medals for academic excellence.

Simi’s decathletes received a total of 52,010 points out of a possible 60,000. James E. Taylor High School in Texas won the 19th annual event with 52,470 points, while Catholic Memorial High School in Wisconsin came in third with 50,786 points.

“I guess silver looks good enough on college applications,” said Simi Valley team member Kevin White, 17, the only junior on the team.

“I’m slightly disappointed, but as long as we placed in the top three, it wasn’t all for nothing,” added 18-year-old Mike Truex. “It was worth it.”

In addition to White and Truex, Simi’s team members are Jennifer Tran, 17; Cary Opel, 18; Randy Xu, 17; Jeff Robertson, 18; Steve Mihalovits, 17; David Bartlett, 18; and Justin Underhill, 17.

The winners were announced during a banquet at a San Antonio convention center. As each student went up to the podium to receive individual awards, parents, siblings and friends cheered, clapped and snapped photos.

“Every time they’d call a name, especially Justin’s, I’d get this rush,” said Dirk Underhill, Justin’s father. “It was such a wonderful feeling. It was incredible.”

After the awards ceremony, Simi Valley Principal Dennis Rast congratulated the students who clutched a giant second-place trophy.

“Until they’re parents, they’ll never know how proud adults can be,” he said. “To see them do what they did, it’s just short of a miracle.”

Before the contest, Simi Valley was ranked third, behind the Texas and Wisconsin teams. But on Friday, the Simi squad won the Super Quiz, an event that required each student to answer five questions about the environment.

Some of Simi Valley’s students didn’t expect to win the overall contest.

“I predicted second place,” Robertson said. “And it’s nothing to laugh about. All the hard work paid off.”

About 400 students from around the country gathered in San Antonio for the two-day contest.

On Thursday and Friday, they wrote essays, delivered speeches, gave interviews and took tests in economics, art, music, science, social science, math and literature.

Simi Valley High’s academic decathletes spent nearly a year preparing for this year’s contest. They each rehearsed their speeches about 80 times and wrote dozens of practice essays. They quit jobs, sacrificed extracurricular activities and set aside their schoolwork.

In addition to their second-place finish, Simi’s squad also won the rookie award for posting the highest score of any team competing in the national finals for the first time.

Team members also received 25 individual medals, including five in math, four in literature and four in social science.

Each team has nine members--three students who have an A average, three with a B average and three with a C average.

Three Simi High School students received awards for being the highest-scoring team members in the nation in their divisions.

Steve Mihalovits got a first in the varsity division--students with a C average--while David Bartlett took a third place in the same division. Cary Opel got a second place among A students in the honors division.

Simi Valley’s march to the national finals began in February when it won the Ventura County competition, beating last year’s national champs from Moorpark High School. The team then took the state title last month in Los Angeles.

This year’s competition was marked by controversy after dozens of coaches criticized the national organization for promoting rote memorization over critical thinking. The board of the United State Academic Decathlon met Friday and voted unanimously to overhaul the curriculum, publish fewer study guides and lower the cost of materials.

Now that the national finals are over, Simi’s students have a lot of catching up to do. Not only do they have homework to make up, they also have to study for Advanced Placement exams. They also want to see long-lost friends and spend time with their families.

Truex had other plans: “I’m going to sleep three or four days,” he said.

As for the coaches, Ken and Sally Hibbitts, they also plan to do some relaxing.

“It’s been a long haul,” Sally Hibbitts said. “I’m ready to go home.”