Moorpark Is State Academic Champ

In a competition that eventually came down to two Southern California powerhouses, Moorpark High School of Ventura County defeated defending national champion El Camino Real High School of Woodland Hills at the California Academic Decathlon on Sunday in Modesto.

The winner emerged after two days of competition among 51 schools.

Moorpark will now go to the U.S. Academic Decathlon, held in Phoenix next month.

“Even if we didn’t win, this all would have been worth it,” said Moorpark’s Andy Song. “This is the icing on the cake.”

Moorpark coach Larry Jones has represented Ventura County at the state competition seven years in a row, and has won twice.

The last victory was in 1999, when his team won its only national title.

This year, his son, Nathaniel Jones, is on the team.

“This [win] is much sweeter,” Jones said.

While Moorpark students cheered, competitors from El Camino displayed the strain of months of intense study.

Sitting with heads bowed, some held hands, while others prayed.

“I did the best I could,” said Ketti Augusztiny, El Camino’s leading scorer. “It’s the most the team could do. [Moorpark] is the better team.”

Coaches Melinda Owen and Chris Cerone led El Camino to the national title last year in Alaska.

They said the second-place finish Sunday took nothing away from the school’s legacy.

“It’s really hard to go twice in a row,” Owen said. “Moorpark is a great team with a great coach.”

Moorpark scored 48,603.3 points to El Camino’s 47,730. Third place went to Edison of Fresno County.

The remainder of the top 10 high schools: North Hollywood, Palisades Charter, Marina of Huntington Beach, Los Angeles, Bishop Alemany, Casa Grande of Sonoma County, and Hemet of Riverside County.

Casa Grande will also go to the national competition because it won the Division II title for smaller schools.

The decathlon’s ending ceremony came amid controversy over the quality of testing material provided by the U.S. Academic Decathlon, which holds the events and provides the questions.

A petition signed by Moorpark’s Jones and a number of coaches called for higher standards and criticized the USAD for its “incompetent ability to put together accurate and fair competition tests.”

Among the other schools whose coaches signed the petition were El Camino, North Hollywood, Edison, Garfield, Venice and Casa Grande.

State Academic Decathlon Executive Director Marvin Cobb would not comment. Unaware of the controversy, most of the students flooded a hotel in downtown hotel where they basked in academic fervor and celebrated a chance to get away from home to celebrate.

“It was all worth it,” said Moorpark’s Michelle Kim.