Valley Science Team 12th

North Hollywood High School placed 12th at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Science Bowl in Maryland on Monday.

The five-member team, which since September put in about 15 hours a week of study time in addition to a regular high school workload, was a bit shocked by the outcome but is handling it well, said team captain Edward Marti.

“You can’t put this many hours and dedication into something and not have it matter,” said the high school senior. “But everybody is doing well. This year, it’s true, we didn’t do as well as we have in the past, but I still think we did pretty well.” North Hollywood was sixth last year and won the national title in 2001.

Considering that about 500 students representing 66 schools from across the nation participated in the two-day competition, the outcome was respectable, said Walter Zeisl, spokesman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which sponsors the regional competition.

“They fought hard; we’re proud of them,” he said.

North Hollywood has won the regional competition six consecutive years.

Defending champion Thomas Jefferson High School of Virginia took first place in the national competition. The only other California team to place in the top 18 -- for which each school wins $1,000 -- was Albany High School of Berkeley.