LOS ANGELES, Calif.–Two Los Angeles Unified School District high schools grabbed the top spots at the California Academic Decathlon Sunday, setting up a possible showdown between the L.A. schools at the national championship.
Granada Hills Charter High School finished with 56,165.5 points today in Sacramento, edging out El Camino Real Charter High School’s 55,669.5 points.
That put El Camino High just .88 percent behind of its cross-valley rivals at Granada Hills.
The runner-up schools were Franklin, John Marshall and Beverly Hills high schools. Sixty-one California teams competed, and the awards were announced in a noisy auditorium in Sacramento today.
Granada Hills was the national Decathlon champs for two year straight, and has grabbed the California trophy for three years now. El Camino Real has also won the national Decathlon in past years.
This is the first year that California can send two teams to the national Decathlon, which will be held this year in Minneapolis on April 25-27.
California schools have won the last 10 national championships, organizers said, and 15 of the last 18 ones.
Members of the winning Granada Hills team are Jae Kyung Chong, Seung Woo Baek, Hamidah Mahmud, Kimberly Ly, Kieelye Ma, Kailin Li, Dayoung Kim, Faria Ghori and Beatrice Dimanahan. The coaches are Matt Arnold, Spencer Wolf and Nick Weber.
The El Camino Real team members are Ranbir Dhillon, Jacob Herir, Johnathan Yih, Jenny Chi, Brennan Lincoln, Melissa Ngu, Peter Do, Tyler Wong and Julian Zeno. Their coach is Stephanie Franklin.
