Taft High Takes El Camino Real’s Academic Crown

Taft High School took first place in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Academic Decathlon on Thursday, unseating defending champion El Camino Real High School and ending its string of seven consecutive local titles.

Winning teams from across California will meet in a statewide competition March 7-8 in Modesto.

In addition, eight wild card slots are reserved for high-scoring schools. Los Angeles Unified teams did so well in the local competition that they will occupy every wild-card slot.

Those high schools are: Marshall, El Camino Real, Los Angeles, North Hollywood, Reseda, Palisades Charter, Venice and San Pedro.

Taft placed 15th in the district last year. It last won the local Academic Decathlon in 1993, and went on to win that year’s national championship.

The students on the winning team are Erfun Geula, James Yoo, Aaron Siani, Veronika Heckova, Elizabeth Dunn, Faisal Khan, Bryan McBride, Richard Kwak and Jesse Gomez. They are coached by Arthur Berchin.

Belmont High, which serves a mostly working-poor Central City neighborhood, was the most improved team, jumping from 60th place last year to 17th.

El Camino Real student Megan Lubaszka was the top individual scorer in the district competition.

The winning school in the state competition will represent California in the national contest, to be held April 23-26 in Erie, Pa.