TIME TO TEST THEIR METTLE; A.V. PUPILS TO COMPETE SATURDAY IN ACADEMIC DECATHLON.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

Hundreds of hours taking practice tests and poring over study guides will culminate for teen-agers from six Antelope Valley public high schools competing Saturday in the Los Angeles County Academic Decathlon.

Teams from Antelope Valley, Highland, Lancaster, Littlerock, Palmdale and Quartz Hill high schools will be battling against 51 other schools for a chance to advance to the state competition.

``I enjoy it a lot. It's a lot of fun to learn more than one subject area and to be able to meet other students from schools with the same interests,'' said James Loughrie, a 17-year-old senior at Palmdale High School who's going to his third decathlon.

The competition will be held at Morningside High School in Inglewood. The state contest will be held from March 20 to 22 at California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, and the national decathlon is scheduled between April 24 to 26 in Warwick, R.I.

The scholastic Super Bowl among high schoolers, the decathlon covers nine academic subject areas - art, music, language and literature, math, science, social science, speech, essay and interview, and climaxes with the Superquiz, a contest similar to a game show.

Each school is fielding a team of nine students, who run the gamut in terms of grade-point averages. They are categorized as: varsity students, who have GPAs of 2.99 or below; scholastic pupils with GPAs between 3.0 to 3.74; and honors students, 3.75 and up.

``As a coach, I'm looking for kids that might score 1600 on the SAT but might have a C average, kids that are bored but bright,'' said Craig Fulladosa, a ceramics teacher who is the Highland High's Academic Decathlon adviser.

Students have spent innumerable hours in summer school classes, at lunchtime breaks, and meetings after school and in the evenings at student or faculty homes preparing for the event.

``We do have fun when we meet. We don't cram ourselves too much,'' Loughrie said.

Fulladosa said his team has used the Internet to research this year's decathlon theme, global economics and attended a performance of a symphony orchestra in Bakersfield featuring music that will be part of the test.

While Loughrie said he is not expecting his team to blaze its way to a national title, he said he and his teammates will have fun.

Palmdale High did, however, take top honors in the first decathlon scrimmage among Antelope Valley Union High School District schools held at Littlerock High in November.

``It was a real boost. It got us to study more,'' Loughrie said.

While the academic decathlon team is an extracurricular activity for Antelope Valley students, other schools offer it as an elective class with a full-time teacher. They have booster clubs and team blazers with embroidered school patches, Fulladosa said.