Granada Hills wins its first area decathlon

Granada Hills Charter High School has won its first regional Academic Decathlon and will be among eight schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District competing in the state championship next month.

Granada Hills, helped by its strong performance on the public Super Quiz portion of the competition Saturday, scored 49,775 overall out of a possible 60,000 points.

At an awards banquet Tuesday night at the Los Angeles Convention Center, district officials announced that seven other L.A. Unified schools also qualified for the state competition. They were led by El Camino Real High School of Woodland Hills, which won back-to-back national championships in 2004 and 2005.

El Camino placed second in the region with 48,880.6 points, followed by North Hollywood High School, a perennial contender in the state contest, which was third with 48,113.3 points.

Last year’s national title winner, Taft High School, which is also in Woodland Hills, placed seventh in the district and will go to the state championship, too.

When the Granada Hills team learned at the banquet of its victory, members started jumping for joy and screaming.

“We knew we were going to do well. But it’s a blessing to do this well,” said Dustin McKenzie, a senior and first-year member of the squad.

The Granada Hills coach, Nicholas Weber, drew confidence from triumphing against the district’s stiff competition.

“Winning LAUSD is, second to winning nationals, probably the biggest win in the decathlon. If you can win here, you can win state and you can win nationals,” Weber said.

He gave special praise to his four returning decathlon team members, crediting them with helping the five newcomers.

The Academic Decathlon tests students’ knowledge in such subjects as literature and science. Teams consist of up to nine students, including those with A, B and C-or-below grade averages

Students take exams, give prepared and impromptu speeches, and compete in a round-robin multiple-choice test known as the Super Quiz.

Jasmine Florentine, a senior at North Hollywood High, was the highest individual scorer in the district with 8,929 points out of 10,000. For her performance, she won a $1,500 scholarship.

“I was kind of hoping to break 9,000 points,” said Jasmine, who hopes to attend MIT next year.

Dorsey High in South Los Angeles, which placed 17th, was the most improved team in the district, scoring 9,000 points higher than a year ago.

All decathlon teams that win regional competitions go to the state contest. Additional schools from each region can also compete in the state championship if they have high enough scores.

Other L.A. Unified schools being invited are Marshall High in Los Feliz, Garfield High in East Los Angeles, Palisades Charter High in Pacific Palisades and Narbonne High in Harbor City.

L.A. Unified is a traditional decathlon powerhouse in California and nationally. Last year, L.A. Unified teams placed first, second and fifth through 11th place in the state competition.

That track record was celebrated Tuesday night. Before the awards banquet ceremonies, the district honored its nine national championship teams stretching back to 1987.

David Tokofsky, a Los Angeles school board member and coach of Marshall’s 1987 championship team, was inducted as the inaugural member of the district’s decathlon Hall of Fame.

The state championship is March 16-18 in Los Angeles.

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charles.proctor@latimes.com