Granada Hills Charter High School’s Academic Decathlon team took the first place title in the Los Angeles regional decathlon competition for the third consecutive year. Results were announced last night at Hollywood High School during the team ceremony for high school students.
Granada Hills Charter beat out a competitive field including John Marshall High School, FranklinHigh School and El Camino Real Charter High School. The team earned 56,805 out of a possible 65,400 points. Marshall was close behind with 56,401 and Franklin took third place with 55,814.
The team was also awarded Gold medals in Art, Essay, Science and Super Quiz, Silver medals in Music, Mathematics and Social Science, Bronze medals in Language and Literature. Coach Nick Weber, an eight-year veteran of the competition, was awarded Coach of the Year.
Academic Decathlon is a grueling two-day competition that tests participants on a range of topics from math and science to art and literature in all kinds of formats. There are multiple choice, fast-paced trivia questions, essays, speeches and interview competitions. The teams, comprised of three “A” students, three “B” students and three “C” students, spend hours studying and preparing for the competition. This year’s theme is “Russia.”
Granada Hills Charter Decathletes are Jenny Baek ‘14, Jake Chong ‘14, Bea Dimaunahan ‘13, Faria Ghori ‘13, Rina Kim ’13, Kailin Li ’14, Kimberly Ly ‘13, Kelly Ma ’13, and Hamidah Mahmud ‘13. (Ly and Mahmud were members of the 2012 city, state and national championship team.) Their coaches are Mathew Arnold, Spencer Wolf and Nick Weber.
“A three-peat in the Los Angeles competition is extraordinary!” said Executive Director Brian Bauer. “We are extremely proud of the accomplishments of this hard working and cohesive team and their exceptional coaches.”
Granada Hills Charter’s Academic Decathlon team is reining back-to-back National Academic Decathlon champions. The School remains the only charter school in the over 30-year history of the National Academic Decathlon competition to claim the national title, and is only the third school to win back-to-back national titles.
The Granada Hills Charter AcaDeca team will compete next month in the state competition.
