Laguna Hills High Takes Decathlon Title

Laguna Hills High School is the new Orange County Academic Decathlon champion and will represent the county in state competition in Bakersfield in March.

Winners of the annual brainpower competition among Orange County high schools were recently announced by the County Department of Education at an awards banquet.

Laguna Hills topped Foothill High, a perennially strong contender, for the county championship. Foothill won second place, Sunny Hills took third and University was fourth.

Last year’s Academic Decathlon county winner, Los Alamitos, finished fifth in team standings this year. Foothill won the championship 3 years in a row before losing to Los Alamitos last year.

On the Laguna Hills team were seniors Mike Craska, Mike Landis, Tyler Suchman and Jeremey Rothler, and juniors Jack Dietz, Jeff McCombs, Mike Symons, Julian Kingston and Don Varner. The team is coached by instructors Kathy Lane and Roger Gunderson.

The Orange County competition was held Dec. 10 at Sunny Hills High, but results were not announced until last week.

High school teams must have an equal number of A-average, B-average and C-average students. They compete in 10 academic events: economics, essays, fine arts, interviews, literature-language, mathematics, science, social science, speech and the “super quiz.”

The “super quiz,” which is the focal event of the competition, was won by the team from Sunny Hills. Edison was second, and Foothill, Laguna Hills, Trabuco Hills and Troy tied for third place.

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