Granada Hills Charter High School Wins Academic Decathlon

GRANADA HILLS, CA - Students at Granada Hills Charter High School won the 2016 California Academic Decathlon on Sunday and will advance to the nationals in Anchorage, Alaska, at the end of April.

In the three-day state competition in Sacramento, Granada Hills defeated 68 other schools and scored 61,149.6 points out of a possible 65,400. Marilyn Koziatek, the school's community outreach coordinator, said it was the highest score ever recorded in the state decathlon.

The theme of this year's competition was India, and included seven multiple choice tests, a speech, interview, essay and a Super Quiz round in front of a live audience.

The winning team members are Mark Aguila, Julian Duran, Isha Gupta, Joshua Lin, Christopher Lo, Aishah Mahmud, Melissa Santos, Mayeena Ulkarim and Jorge Zepeda.

The San Fernando Valley school has dominated the state and national competition recently, winning four of the last five national titles -- from 2011 to 2013, and again in 2015.

This year's national decathlon takes place from April 28-30.

— City News Service