L.A. Unified and L.A. County Academic Decathlon winners announced
Marshall High School beat out 64 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District in the annual Academic Decathlon, district officials announced Thursday night.
Anastasya Lloyd-Damnjanovic was the highest scoring individual student, with 8,933 points.
The second-placed school was El Camino Real and the third was Granada Hills Charter High School.
The decathlon tests students’ knowledge in a variety of areas, such as history, speech and interviews. This year's focus was the French Revolution.
Members of Marshall High School’s winning Academic Decathlon team include: Un Sil “Cherry” Park, Brandon Schwartz, Anastasya Lloyd-Damnjanovic, Andrew Dang, Alejandra Cardenas, Kittinan Ponkaew, Liliana Delaguila, Amber Esponda and Marcos Chinchilla. Their coach is Larry Welch.
Marshall High School first won a national championship in 1987.
Since then, the district has won 15 state and 10 national competitions.West High School of Torrance won the Los Angeles County Academic Decathlon for the second year in a row, county officials announced Thursday afternoon.
The top-scoring individual student was Jordan Smolinsky of West High, who scored 8,525 points.
The second-place school was Keppel High, followed by Torrance High in third place.Members of West High School’s winning Academic Decathlon team include Aaron Cheng, Chris Miro, Patrick Xiao, Joey Hahm, Hussein Nasr, Jordan Smolinsky, Kevin Gupta, Jeffrey Ho and Joon Park.
Their coach is Ann Cortina.
The winners now head to Sacramento to compete in the state competition March 12 -15. The top-scoring school will go to the nationals to be held April 21-24 in Omaha.
--Nicole Santa Cruz
EDITOR'S PICKS:
Well done, Marshall! AcaDeca is amazingly grueling for the kids and teachers; and fairly grueling for the parents.
Posted by: MikeOHara | February 11, 2010 at 10:46 PM
Congrats. I was in the AcaDeca team in HS and it was so much fun!! Congratulations for your achievement!!
Posted by: uclabruin | February 12, 2010 at 11:41 AM
Good job, all the kids!
Posted by: Mufon | February 12, 2010 at 03:06 PM
WELL DONE BARRISTERS, ONCE AGAIN YOU REACHED THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN, I WAS THERE WHEN IT HAPPENED IN 1987, WELL DESERVED AFTER 23 YEARS,BEST OF WISHES AND GO ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP SO YOU CAN SHOW EVERYONE THAT MARSHALL HIGH STILL IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE ONE OF THE BADDEST AND GREAT SCHOOL IN "LOS ANGELES"
AND FOR THOSE BELMONT HATERS, GUESS WHAT WE ARE SMARTER AND BETTER
Posted by: GREG MEJIA | February 13, 2010 at 01:28 PM