Granada Hills Charter High School will begin defending its U.S. Academic Decathlon championship Thursday at the national competition in Anchorage, Alaska.
The nine-member team dominated 68 other schools at the California Academic Decathlon in March, scoring a record 61,149.6 points out of a possible 65,400, according to the school. The three-day national competition, with the theme of India, will begin today, with a winner being announced Saturday.
The Granada Hills 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. The school also won the national competition in 2007.
A California school has won the U.S. title 13 years in a row. LAUSD schools have won 16 national titles since 1986.
—City News Service