Granada Hills High wins another Academic Decathlon

Maybe they should just start calling it the San Fernando Valley Academic Decathlon…

Granada Hills Charter High School won the National Academic Decathlon for the fourth time in five years this weekend in Garden Grove – outscoring more than 45 other schools from as far away as Great Britain and China for the title.

The one victory that eluded Granada Hills this decade went to fellow San Fernando Valley school El Camino Real Charter. El Camino – in Woodland Hills – has the won the national title seven times.

This weekend belonged to Granada Hills, though. The school’s eight-member team scored 53,592 points out of a possible 66-thousand in a competition that tested students’ knowledge in 10 subjects, ranging from economics and literature to art and music. The theme this year was alternate energy.

The victory was no accident. Team members say they spent more than 30 hours a week studying, skipping sports, school dances and other activities to concentrate on the competition.

The members of the championship team are Peter Cho, Jenean Docter, Natalie Gonzalez, Jasmin Kim, Irene Lee, Tanthai Pongstien, Fernando Sanchez and Jorge Zepeda.