GRANADA HILLS HIGH SCHOOL WINS CALIFORNIA ACADEMIC DECATHLON

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Flory P. Hidalgo

Granada Hills Charter High School was proclaimed the winner Tuesday of the California Academic Decathlon, scoring 50,801 out of a possible 60,000 points.

The nine-member team will move on to the U.S. Academic Decathlon in Charlotte, N.C., on April 28-29.

"Congratulations to Granada Hills Charter High School for this great win, and I want to extend a special kudos to all of the academic decathlon teams and coaches from the Los Angeles Unified School District for their amazing competitive spirit and academic success at the state level," said LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines.

LAUSD schools Marshall High School and El Camino Real High School finished second and third, respectively, in the competition, which was held over the weekend in Sacramento. Franklin High, Palisades Charter High and Taft High all finished in the top 10.

The members of the Granada Hills team -- which also won the LAUSD decathlon in February -- are Harsimar Dhanoa, Elysia Eastty, Shagun Goyal, Riki Higashida, Austin Kang, Jiyong "Eugene" Lee, Joon Lee, Sindhura Seeni and Celine Ta.

El Camino Real High School won the California and U.S. Academic Decathlons last year, bringing its record-setting total to six national titles. Taft High School on the state and national titles in 2006.

California schools have won the last eight national titles and 13 in the past 16 years.