Moorpark High places second in public portion of national Academic Decathlon

Moorpark High School’s Academic Decathlon team placed second in the public portion of the Super Quiz challenge here on Friday, edged out of the top spot by a Wisconsin school that is among its biggest competitors for the overall prize.

“I’m really proud of our team and so ecstatic,” said Sarah Thiele, a Moorpark senior.

The winner of the overall competition will be announced today at an awards banquet.

“They obviously knew their stuff,” senior Marlena Sampson said. “I’m hoping for the best. We didn’t win the state Super Quiz and we still won.”

California is a powerhouse in the world of Academic Decathlon and Moorpark High is among its strongest teams every year.

The Musketeers are representing California in the national competition after besting every other team in the state earlier this year. The school and coach Larry Jones have won the nationals three times, including last year.

“I think he’s going to win again,” Charlene Masuhara, coach of the Hilo High School team in Hawaii, said after her students left the room.

The Ventura County students arrived in Memphis on Monday and have been holed up in their hotel rooms studying ever since.

The students declined offers to go out to sample the city’s renowned barbecue and music, saying that socializing would have to wait until the competition is over.

The 36 teams completed several written tests Thursday in math, social sciences and literature. They also finished speech and interview sections. All that was left was the Super Quiz, which comes in two parts.

Before the first section, a 45-question written exam, Jones called the nine-member team into a huddle. Each student rubbed his 1999 championship ring for luck.

“This is where we leave no doubt,” Jones said. “Open it up.”

Next came the public Super Quiz, a stressful “Jeopardy”-style contest in front of hundreds of students and onlookers in which each team member had seven seconds to answer a battery of questions about evolutionary biology.

Technical difficulties jarred the students during the Super Quiz at the California finals. In the weeks leading up to nationals, they were clearly nervous, asking Jones how loud it would be.

“I told them they would only hear two things -- the proctor’s voice and the sound of your heart beating,” he said.

Jones handed out sprigs of parsley to calm their stomachs and freshen their breath before they took the stage.

Junior Sol Moon was especially nervous because he missed one question at the county and state finals. He described his minutes on stage at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts in Memphis as the greatest amount of “doubt, terror and anxiety I’ve ever experienced answering five questions.”

He answered all five correctly. But one would never have known that looking at him -- he, like the other Moorpark students, sat stone-faced while their competitors hollered and pumped their fists.

As the points were tallied after every round, Waukesha West High from Wisconsin established a lead, while Moorpark High, South High from Willoughby, Ohio, and Whitney M. Young Magnet High from Illinois competed for second.

After senior Kris Sankaran answered the final question, he flashed five fingers and a huge grin at Jones, signaling that he answered all his questions correctly and the team secured second place. Waukesha took first and Willoughby took third.

Sankaran said the competition for the overall winner is tight. “Everybody knows it’s close, but I’m confident in this team.”

Other team members are senior Neil Paik, Michael Fantauzzo, Zyed Ismailjee, Danielle Hagglund and junior Scott Buchanan.

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seema.mehta@latimes.com