El Camino Real’s Decathletes Close the Books

The team from El Camino Real High School of Woodland Hills savored its victory in the United States Academic Decathlon by enjoying on Sunday the Alaskan wildlife that it had ignored during last-minute cramming for the competition.

El Camino won the championship by a scant 21 points over returning champions James E. Taylor High School of Texas. Decathlon officials could not recall a closer finish in the 60,000-point national contest’s two decades.

El Camino coach Christian Cerone credited two California teams--which his defeated in the state competition last month--with helping the Conquistadors prepare for the highly competitive three-day U.S. meet by lending them study materials.

“With a 21-point margin, the support we got from Palisades [Charter High School] and Moorpark [High School] could have been the difference,” Cerone said. He added that spring break before the competition helped recharge the batteries of decathletes Alan Wittenberg, Aria Haghighi, Samantha Henry, Elan Bar, Walter Ching, Grace Giles, Dennis Kuo, Scott Lulovics and Ryan Ruby.

“We didn’t let anyone down,” Giles said. “That was always the purpose.”

As for the Texas team, Taylor coach Cynthia Swetnam said, “I think we gave it our very best shot.”

For much of the awards banquet at which the points for the various categories were announced, Illinois’ Whitney M. Young High School held the lead. But it faltered in the decathlon’s only public event, the Super Quiz, and dropped to third place.

El Camino’s nine seniors won medals in every category except the interview portion. Wittenberg placed first in the division for students with C averages. Haghighi, El Camino’s highest scorer, won a silver medal in the A-student division. Their awards came with scholarships.

On Sunday, El Camino’s decathletes, their coaches and several of their parents cruised Alaska’s Resurrection Bay and saw Exit Glacier, south of Anchorage. The team plans to return to Los Angeles today and celebrate its victory later this week on campus. The school last won a national title in 1998.

Other decathlon teams will return to their campuses with less fanfare. Nearly 500 high school students from 39 states competed in this year’s national finals and few doubted the top winner would come from California or Texas. The two states have traded the national trophy for all 20 years, a streak that has frustrated students and coaches from other states.

“It discourages us,” said Indiana decathlete Beth Fulmer, 17, whose team from Martinsville High School placed 30th.

California and Texas enjoy highly developed, well-financed decathlon programs, fielding hundreds of teams in each state. By comparison, schools such as New Hampshire’s Alvirne High School are just getting into the academic contest and compete in their state against only a handful of teams.

“We met our goals to get a medal and raise our score,” said Alvirne coach Mary Jane Ames, whose team placed 16th in a division of medium-sized schools.

Having multiple divisions, a recent change in the decathlon, allowed more schools to feel the trip to Alaska was worth it, students and coaches said. And this year, for the first time, some states sent a second team. Texas’ B-team, Friendswood High School, took fifth overall.

Hawaii’s team, from Hilo High School, also surprised itself, placing sixth overall and meeting its goal of finishing in the top 10. In nine years of finals, the school from America’s 50th state has never done better than 13th, said coach Dane Nelson

“Hawaii was my favorite state,” he said. “Now Alaska may be my favorite.”