RUHS Wins 2nd in Academic Decathlon

The Academic Decathlon team placed second in the Los Angeles County competition, earning it a spot in the state competition March 15-18 in Sacramento, officials announced Thursday.

The team scored 42,317 points out of a possible 60,000. Sophomore Luke Murphy was the No. 3 individual scorer in the entire competition, racking up 8,168 points out of a possible 10,000.

This is the best finish Redondo Union has seen in the school's history, according to a note posted on the high school's website.

According to an article in Redondo Union's High Tide student newspaper, the team has been preparing for the competition since April 2011. Team members study with each other during class for five hours per week, and in the final weeks before the regional competition, they began after-school practices.

"Our preparation included anything from just in-class reading and studying and learning the material to hang-outs where the whole team went to each other's houses (to study)," senior Chris Lew told High Tide reporter LeAnn Maanum.

This year's team had four returning seniors—a fact that pushed teammates to work harder, according to the High Tide.

"The realization that this was our last chance to compete as a team, and the fact that we all just have a genuine passion for learning, made us realize that we need to perform well if we want to keep competing as a team," Lew told the newspaper.

West High School in Torrance, which has won seven of the last eight county Academic Decathlon titles, placed first in the competition with a score of 45,132. finished third with 41,684; Arcadia High School placed fourth with 39,347; and Burbank High School finished fifth with 39,347.

West, Redondo Union, Beverly Hills, Burbank, Arcadia, , Pico Rivera El Rancho, Torrance South and Torrance high schools will advance to the state competition.

More than 500 students from 45 schools took part in the decathlon, which was held Jan. 28 at Pico Rivera El Rancho High School and Saturday at Galen Center. This year's theme was European imperialism and the age of empires.

The top individual scorer overall was senior David Wang of Palos Verdes Peninsula High School—who tallied 8,357 points out of a possible 10,000—followed by Lisa Beckmann, a West High School senior who scored 8,273 points.

City News Service contributed to this report.