SIMI HIGH DECLARED ACADEMIC CHAMP.

Byline: Paul O'Donoghue Staff Writer

THOUSAND OAKS - Simi Valley High School took first in the Ventura County Academic Decathlon, narrowly defeating rival Moorpark High, it was announced Sunday night.

Ken Hibbitts, coach of the Simi Valley team along with his wife, Sally, was overjoyed as team members hugged each other after the announcement in the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

``It hasn't sunk in yet that we are county champions,'' he said. ``I feel ecstatic, elated.''

The victory was especially important for members of the Simi Valley team because they had defeated their Moorpark High School rivals, who were national champions last year.

Simi team captain Mike Truex complimented Moorpark. ``It was a very, very close competition,'' he said. ``We were neck and neck right to the very end.''

Moorpark High School coach Michelle Bergman said as second-place winner, her team still could make it to the state finals as one of the wild-card entries.

The Moorpark High team members and supporters had been optimistic about their chance to retain their county title, especially because they were national champions.

Moorpark won the oral section of the Super Quiz on Saturday - edging out Simi Valley High by one point as well as beating the 14 other schools competing for the county title.

The awards ceremony Sunday started at 2 p.m. with gold, silver and bronze medals given to the top-scoring individual students in each of the three divisions for all subjects except Super Quiz, for which only team medals are awarded.

Randy Xu, a Simi Valley High team member, won the top individual award.

Moorpark had two teams competing - a seven-member A-team and a nine- member B-team, which came in third.

On Saturday, the students were tested in math, language and literature, music, economics, social studies, art and the Super Quiz. Moorpark lost to Simi Valley High in the first three subjects that were examined on Jan. 8.

After the competition at Oxnard High School on Saturday, a private banquet was held at the Radisson Hotel in Oxnard for Moorpark High School's two teams that was attended by coach Michelle Bergman, Principal Anna Merriman, parents and school officials.

School district officials presented all 16 team members from Moorpark with letters for their letterman jackets. The students thanked their parents and gave them group photographs of the two teams and cards signed by all team members.

``It was very nice,'' Bergman said.

``The moms were crying, and the dads were videotaping, and there were hugs all around . . . it was a great evening.''

After the banquet the students went to A-team member Gavin Humes' home for a party that ended at about 1:30 a.m.

The kids wanted to stay out as late as possible so they'd be able to sleep late on Sunday, minimizing the agony of waiting for the competition results, Bergman said.

And indicative of the teams' cohesion was their decision to travel together in two vans to the awards ceremony instead of traveling individually to Thousand Oaks, which is only a few miles away.

``They really wanted to go with each other,'' Bergman said.

In the competition, teams were divided into three divisions. The teams that competed last year were placed in the first two divisions, with the higher-scoring teams in Division 1. Division 2 comprised the lower-scoring teams from last year plus all new teams competing for the first time; Division 3 consisted of all B-teams in the competition.

The maximum score each team can attain is 60,000 points. That's because the scores of only the top six students are counted. Each of the competition's 10 subjects counts for 1,000 points.

A team must have at least six members, broken into three categories. Each of the categories consists of at least two students each - students who have grade-point averages of A, B and C.

Following the awards ceremony in Thousand Oaks on Sunday, the teams, parents and officials were slated to go to dinner at former coach Larry Jones' home.

Food for the party was donated by Bauducco's and Two Guys from Italy restaurants in Moorpark and Marie Callender's in Simi Valley.

Next step in the competition will be the state leg in March, which will have 50 teams competing to represent California in the national contest.

The state competition, whose location alternates each year between Southern and Northern California, will be held at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles this year.

The 24 Ventura County teams hailed from Buena, Camarillo, Channel Islands, Fillmore, Hueneme, Moorpark, Newbury Park, Oak Park, Oxnard, Rio Mesa, Royal, Santa Susana, Simi Valley, Santa Paula, Thousand Oaks and Ventura high schools.

Moorpark's A-team members are Tiffany Chou, captain, senior; Russell Glenn, senior; Zachary Ramirez, junior; James Marlier, senior; Nick Weber, senior; Gavin Humes, senior; and David Pomerantz, junior.