NATIONAL ACADEMIC DECATHLON CHAMPIONS EL CAMINO REAL GENIUSES TAKE TITLE AGAIN.Byline: Lisa M. Sodders Staff Writer CHICAGO - 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. won the 24th annual 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, giving the Woodland Hills high school its fourth national title and its second consecutive victory. The team's nine members cheered and embraced when the results were announced Saturday night in the grand ballroom of the historic Palmer House This article is about the hotel in Chicago. For the Sauk Centre hotel, see The Palmer House (Sauk Centre). For Potter Palmer's mansion, see Palmer Mansion The Palmer House Hilton is a famous and historic hotel in downtown Chicago. Hilton Hotel here. ``On to Internationals!'' shouted a giddy Sean Follmer, 17, of Woodland Hills, as a phalanx phalanx, ancient Greek formation of infantry. The soldiers were arrayed in rows (8 or 16), with arms at the ready, making a solid block that could sweep bristling through the more dispersed ranks of the enemy. of giggling and beaming parents shot photos and video of the happy students. The El Camino team scored 49,009.4 points out of a possible 60,000, beating 346 other students from 39 other teams from around the nation. Coaches Christian Cerone and Lissa Gregorio said they were elated to see their hard-working students come out as national champions. ``I'm overcome with pride and joy,'' Cerone said. ``I'm so proud of them and so happy that they get to experience this because they deserve it.'' In addition to Follmer, the team consists of Lindsey Cohen cohen or kohen (Hebrew: “priest”) Jewish priest descended from Zadok (a descendant of Aaron), priest at the First Temple of Jerusalem. The biblical priesthood was hereditary and male. , 17, of West Hills; Laura Descher, 18, of West Hills; Ben Farahmand, 18, of Woodland Hills; Lindsay Gibbs, 17, of Woodland Hills; Brian Hwang, 17, of West Hills; Jihwan Kim, 17, of Canoga Park; Kevin Rosenberg, 17, of West Hills; and Micah Roth, 17, of West Hills. The team exploded in cheers and gleeful glee·ful adj. Full of jubilant delight; joyful. glee  ful·ly adv.glee hugs when the national title win was announced. ``We were sitting there, holding hands, and we told ourselves we had no regrets, and if another team beat us it was because they worked harder,'' Rosenberg said, describing the tense moments before their victory. ``There's no better feeling in the world after so many hours of studying.'' Arizona placed second, with 48,285 points, followed by Wisconsin with 46,456.8 points in third place, Texas with 45,879.6 points for fourth place, and Illinois in fifth place with 45,091.8 points. ``Can you say 'dynasty?''' crowed Marvin Cobb, executive director of the California Academic Decathlon. ``Next year - watch it! We're going to do it again in Texas!'' The team racked up an impressive 31 individual medals, including 12 bronze, 12 silver and 7 gold. Descher was honored as the highest-scoring member of the team with an individual score of 8,502.4 points, and also won a $750 scholarship. Roth won a $500 scholarship and Kim won a $1,000 scholarship. ``It's been a crazy ride, a roller coaster,'' Roth said. ``It has reawakened my spirit of competition, it has given me a new definition of success, lifelong friends and most important of all, it has exposed me to a style of existence that I wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise.'' Cerone also revealed the secret motto embroidered em·broi·der v. em·broi·dered, em·broi·der·ing, em·broi·ders v.tr. 1. To ornament with needlework: embroider a pillow cover. 2. on the backs of the team's black satin warm-up jackets, an El Camino tradition that created a buzz among other teams. This year's motto, written in Elvish (character) elvish - 1. The Tengwar of Feanor, a table of letterforms resembling the beautiful Celtic half-uncial hand of the "Book of Kells". Invented and described by J.R.R. by former head coach Melinda Owen, was a loose translation of a line from Mozart's ``The Marriage of Figaro'': ``I get no sleep by night or day but yet I enjoy suffering this way.'' The team has been in Chicago since Tuesday, studying and participating in the tough round of written tests in seven subjects - language and literature, math, science, art, economics, music and the Super Quiz, which focused on astronomy this year. Team members also had to write an essay, give a speech and be interviewed. The El Camino students won the oral relay portion of the Super Quiz on Friday, and Follmer was chosen to give his speech Friday night with 11 other students at the Speech Showcase. On Saturday, the students visited the Art Institute of Chicago Art Institute of Chicago, museum and art school, in Grant Park, facing Michigan Ave. It was incorporated in 1879; George Armour was the first president. Since 1893 the Institute has been housed in its present building, designed in the Italian Renaissance style by and Millennium Park Millennium Park is a prominent civic center of the City of Chicago in Illinois and an important landmark of the city's lakefront. A redeveloped section of Grant Park, the 24. . They will spend today sightseeing in Chicago before returning home to Los Angeles on Monday. The victory gives the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. its eighth national championship and California its 12th national title, compared to 11 for Texas and one for Wisconsin. El Camino previously won nationals in 1998, 2001 and 2004. But the all-time individual school champion is five-time national champ J.J. Pearce High School of Richardson, Texas, which won in 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988 and 1991. Lisa Sodders, (818) 713-3663 lisa.sodders(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- color) El Camino Real El Camino Real (Spanish for The Royal Road or The King's Highway) was the name of a series of pre-automobile highways linking the various New World colonies of Spain:
(2) Lindsey Cohen, left, and Laura Descher await the announcement of the winning team's name on Saturday in Chicago. Aynsley Floyd/Associated Press |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion