Moorpark Falls Short in Decathlon

The rivals knew one of them would be the best in the state, and after two days of brain busting, it was El Camino Real.

Moorpark High School, Ventura County’s scholastic powerhouse, came within 995 points of the state Academic Decathlon title, finishing second to the Woodland Hills school and coming home with mixed emotions.

“We’re disappointed for us, but really happy for them,” said Moorpark Coach Larry Jones. “We know how hard they worked and we have a lot of respect for them. We really liked each other.”

Moorpark’s second-place finish, with 44,455 points, comes on the heels of a first-place win at the Ventura County Academic Decathlon in February--the school’s sixth such victory in the past 10 years. The team won the national title in 1999.

“Moorpark High did the best they could,” said Mille Gad, whose son, Mahdi, is on the team. “And they are still on the academic map.”

Still, she said she was disappointed that Moorpark would not be competing in the national finals.

Instead, El Camino Real High School will be California’s representative in the United States Academic Decathlon. It claimed its fifth state championship in 10 years, earning another opportunity to take back the national title it won in 1998. Last year, Simi Valley High School won the state title and went on to be the No. 2 team in the nation. This year the school did not enter the competition.

For Moorpark and El Camino, the weekend of competition fueled a friendly rivalry with a trip next month to Anchorage on the line. When the results were announced Sunday, the top two teams hugged and cheered each other.

“When it came down to it, we would have been happy with losing,” said El Camino senior Alan Wittenberg. “They deserved it as much as we did.”

Southern California squads dominated the 22nd annual academic competition among 50 schools from throughout the state. El Camino’s team scored 45,450 out of a possible 60,000 points in an exhausting series of tests, speeches and interviews, highlighted by Saturday’s Super Quiz before hundreds of cheering students and parents.

Following El Camino and Moorpark, Palos Verdes Peninsula High took third. Completing the top 10 were Marshall High in Los Feliz, the private Bishop Alemany in Mission Hills, West High in Torrance, Burbank High, North Hollywood High, Orange County’s Los Alamitos High and Riverside County’s Hemet High.

After the county competitions last month, their high point totals suggested that El Camino and Moorpark would be vying for the state title during finals Friday and Saturday at UCLA and Loyola Marymount University.

But rather than sticking to themselves to psych out their opponents, the two teams swam together in their hotel pool, hung out in each other’s rooms and danced the night before the awards were handed out.

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Hoisting trophies and jingling medals after the ceremony Sunday afternoon at the LAX Marriott, the El Camino and Moorpark teams gathered in their suits and skirts for a group photo. A few weeks ago, Jones, the Moorpark coach, had gotten the teams together for a lasagna dinner and some pre-competition bonding.

While Moorpark’s decathletes can catch up on their sleep after weeks of cramming sessions, El Camino’s team will open their books again this week to prepare for James E. Taylor High School, the powerhouse from Texas that won last year’s national title.

“We’ve got a whole bunch of study materials for you guys,” Jones told El Camino’s team and coaches. “You’ve got to beat Texas.”

El Camino Coach Melinda Owen said the point total her nine decathletes ran up over the weekend is short of Taylor’s score that won Texas’ competition.

“It’s good to chase somebody. It’s a motivation,” Owen said.

For the first time, each state can send two teams to the national competition, but California plans to send only its champion. Under the national rules, the state’s second team cannot come from the same division as the top team. There are three divisions based on population size, and Los Angeles and Ventura counties are in the same division. Therefore, Moorpark is not eligible.

Jones said he wished competition organizers would reconsider that rule and admit his team, which he said has the third-highest statewide score in the nation. El Camino’s coaches, Owen and Christian Cerone, agreed.

“It seems clear that the team that comes in second should go,” Owen said.

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Mahdi Gad, a Moorpark senior, said he’s sentimental about his Academic Decathlon journey ending, but is also looking forward to the break.

“I get my life back, [can] see my friends again and watch TV,” he said, sporting four medals around his neck.

He has been accepted to attend UC Santa Cruz in the fall, but he said his focus right now is much less ambitious: “I’m going home to take a nap.”

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Times staff writers Jenifer Ragland and Anna Gorman contributed to this story.