EL CAMINO SCHOLARS 2ND IN DECATHLON : RECORD-SETTING TEXAS KEEPS ACADEMIC TITLE OUT OF VALLEY TEAM'S REACH.Byline: Mary F. Pols Daily News Staff Writer El Camino Real High School El Camino Real High School (also known locally as "ECR" and by some more recently as "ELCO") is a public secondary school located in the Woodland Hills district of the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California. took second place in the U.S. Academic Decathlon decathlon (dĭkăth`lŏn), in modern Olympic games, a contest for men held over two days and composed of 10 track-and-field events. on Saturday, losing out to an all-boy team from Texas that stunned organizers and participants with a record-shattering performance. This is the second year in a row that the Woodland Hills-based school will tote a second-place trophy home to California while a Texas team returns victorious to the Lone Star Lone Star (or Lonestar) may refer to:
But whereas last year was a heart-breaking experience, with El Camino only 285 points out of a possible 60,000 shy of winning, the 1997 team remained dry-eyed. They could only shake their heads in amazement over the prowess of their counterparts from James E. Taylor High School James E. Taylor High School, also known as Katy Taylor High School, is a public high school in Harris County, Texas, near the city of Katy. The school, which serves grades 9 through 12, is a part of the Katy Independent School District. of Katy, Texas Katy is a city located in the U.S. state of Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. The city is located partially in the counties of Fort Bend, Waller, and Harris. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, Katy's population was 11,775. . The Taylor team scored 52,260 points, destroying the previous U.S. Academic Decathlon record by more than 2,000 points. El Camino had 49,520 points, while Illinois finished third with a score of 47,970 points. ``They deserve it,'' said El Camino junior Steve Chae, as he stepped up to shake the hands of the Texas team members. Not long into the three-hour award ceremony, it became obvious that the Texas team was just about invincible. Before the overall winners were announced, individual medals were handed out in 10 subjects, including economics, math, fine arts, science, literature and social science. Since teams are composed of students from three categories - ``varsity'' students who have C averages, ``scholastics'' with B averages and ``honors'' with A averages - there were at least nine medals awarded in each subject area. Over and over, the names of players from Taylor were called up to receive gold, silver and bronze medals. By the time the announcer reached the science category - which the Texas team swept for gold medals in all three academic divisions - faces at the El Camino table were glum glum adj. glum·mer, glum·mest 1. Moody and melancholy; dejected. 2. Gloomy; dismal. n. 1. . ``The whole Texas team is going up,'' senior Michal Engleman said despairingly to co-coach Dave Roberson. ``It's OK,'' Roberson assured her. The medal-heavy Texans began emitting a steady clanking clank n. A metallic sound, sharp and hard but not resonant: the clank of chains. intr.v. clanked, clank·ing, clanks To make a sharp, hard, metallic sound. noise each time they made the journey from their table at the back of the room to the podium to pick up another award. Soon they were holding the medals against their chests, as if to save the rest of the teams the suffering of having to listen to the clink Clink, district in Southwark, a Greater London borough, England. The Clink prison was used from the 13th cent. as a detention place for heretics. Its name is now a slang term for a prison or jail. , clink, clink of their stunning success. ``I think Texas wrote the test,'' hissed El Camino senior Mike Montgomery To see the defensive end on the Green Bay Packers see Michael Montgomery Mike Montgomery (born February 27 1947 in Long Beach, California, United States) is the former head coach of the Golden State Warriors in the NBA. . The rivalry between Texas and California teams is longstanding. Judy Combs, executive director of the California Academic Decathlon, said that teams from Texas or California have won all but one decathlon in the national competition's 16-year history. ``They are always our nemesis,'' Combs said. But even though the Taylor team dominated the competition with 49 individual medals, El Camino also picked up its fair share, taking home 34 medals. Senior Robert Magee was a standout, scoring the highest point total for the El Camino team and scooping up a $2,000 college scholarship. Overall, he had the fifth-highest score nationally. He is hoping that his stellar decathlon performance will persuade the same UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX officials who rejected him for fall admissions to admit him next spring. He's planning on sitting down to write them a letter as soon as he gets home. After that, he's going to get back to his life. ``I'm going to hang out with my girlfriend and friends that I haven't seen in 10 months,'' he said. Robert said he was nervous at the start of the competition, although it certainly wasn't obvious. He and the two other Varsity players on the El Camino team, Mike and senior Roger Rees Roger Rees (born May 4, 1944) is a Welsh-born American actor. Rees was born in Aberystwyth, Wales, the son of Doris Louise (Smith), a shop clerk, and William John Rees, a police officer. - who have grown inseparable this year - were all clad in black suits, black ties and black shirts, trying to their utmost to look cool. ``I was worried going in,'' Robert said. ``I knew the Texas team was really strong. But I just resolved to do the best I could.'' Steve Chae received a silver medal in fine arts, and Dawn Robinson Dawn Robinson (born November 28 1969 in New London, Connecticut) is an African-American R&B/soul/Dance-pop singer mostly best known for her work as a member of hit Urban/Dance-pop group En Vogue. picked up a silver in language and literature. Mike won copper medals in speech, science and language, and literature, a silver in fine arts, a bronze in social science and a silver in math. Adi Zarchi won a silver in language and literature and in fine arts, a brass in science and a bronze in economics. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Tamara Miller, left, and Jackie Moses cheer El Camino High School's second-place finish Saturday in the U.S. Academic Decathlon. Nick Adams/St. George Spectrum |
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