South Pasadena High School was proclaimed Thursday the victor of the Los Angeles County Academic Decathlon, propelling them to the statewide competition in March.
It’s the second year in a row the South Pasadena team has won the county competition. The team tallied 55,373.9 points out of a possible 60,000 during the competition, besting its score of 52,572.5 from last year, according to the county.
In addition to South Pasadena, nine other schools in the county competition earned scores high enough to earn wild-card berths in the California Academic Decathlon, which will be held March 17-20 in Sacramento. The wild-card high schools, and their scores, are:
— Edgewood, West Covina Unified, 54,210.5;
— West, Torrance Unified, 51.979.7;
— Mark Keppel, Alhambra Unified, 51,282.5;
— Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills Unified, 50,603.8;
— Burbank, Burbank Unified, 49,207.2;
— Redondo Union, Redondo Beach Unified, 47,156.4;
— Alhambra, Alhambra Unified, 46,389.7;
— Arcadia, Arcadia Unified, 45,532.0; and
— West Ranch, Hart Union, 43,476.8.
The county decathlon, with the theme of India, was held Jan. 30 and Feb. 6. Nearly 500 students from 52 teams took part.
The top individual scorer was Molly Kim of West High School, with a score of 9,520 out of a possible 10,000. Benjamin Lin of Edgewood High School scored 9,493 and Anthony Chen of South Pasadena High scored 9,026.4.
The winner of the state competition will advance to the U.S. Academic Decathlon in April.
The winner of the Los Angeles Unified School District Academic Decathlon, which is held separately from the county, will be announced Friday. The district’s Granada Hills Charter High School has won the national competition four of the past five years, interrupted only in 2014, when another LAUSD school, El Camino Real, won the title.
–City News Service