NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Clear Lake High School was among 65 high schools from across the state taking part in the California Academic Decathlon this past weekend.
Altogether, 565 students competed in the 35th annual event, held in Sacramento.
El Camino Real Charter High School and Granada Hills Charter School, both located in the Los Angeles Unified School District, won first and second places the state competition, respectively.
El Camino's team scored 57,747.3 points out of 65,400 possible, while Granada Hills' score was 57,214.1.
Both of El Camino and Granada Hills' nine-member teams will represent California at the 33rd national Academic Decathlon, to be held in Honolulu April 24 and 25.
California has won 11 consecutive US Academic Decathlon titles and 15 titles in the last 18 years, according to state competition officials. Over the 32 years of the national competition, California has placed first or second every year but one.
Marshall High School of the Los Angeles Unified School District won the large school title with 56,963 points, Campolindo High/Contra Costa received the medium school title with 49,205.6 points and University High/Fresno received the small school title with 48,345.3 points.
State competition officials said all three of those division-winning high schools will be eligible to compete in the US Academic Decathlon.
Each team includes nine members from three categories: Honors, 3.75 grade point average and above; Scholastic, 3.0 to 3.74 GPA; and Varsity, 2.99 to GPA and below.
Clear Lake High School represented Lake County at the annual state competition, participating in Division III.
The school, making its first appearance on behalf of the county in more than a decade, scored 31,623.50, earning it a ranking of No. 63 overall.
Asia Jones was Clear Lake High's top scorer, contributing 6763.8 points to the team's total, according to the final standings.
Philip Leighton, performing in the Varsity level, tied for a gold medal in the interview category, scoring 980 points.
Clear Lake High Junior Savannah Rasmussen told Lake County News that the state competition offered the team a “great and fun experience.”
“It was really about more than just the testing; our team bonded together and we met some really great people from around California,” she said.
Rasmussen said she hoped that, now that the team knows what the competition is all about, it can return next year.
In other results from schools around the region, Casa Grande High School from Sonoma County placed No. 16 in Division I with 48040.3 points, St. Helena High School from Napa County scored 41786.5 in Division III and placed No. 47, River City/Davis Senior High School in Yolo County scored 31647.4 points in Division III and placed No. 62 and Glenn County's Orland High School, competing in Division III, placed No. 65 with 28746.9 points.
Casa Grande's individual student medals in the Division I category include Honors student Carol Tang's nine-way tie for third place in art, Honors student Shin Mei Chan took second place in interview and third place in speech, Honors student Joy Gu took second place in speech, Varsity student James Moore medaled in social science and Varsity student Cassidy Visco died for first in speech.
St. Helena High students also put in a strong showing.
Brandon Cole placed second in Division III's overall student winners for the Varsity category, with 6,213 points. Another Varsity student, Brianna Haug, was in a two-way tie for third place in art and also tied for third in the interview category.
In economics, Scholastic student Joseph Coon of St. Helena High School tied with three other students for third place in Division III; in essay Varsity student Spencer Pearson won first place; and Honors student Cori Calabi won a gold medal for speech.
Honors student Ankita Singh of River City/Davis Senior High School was in a three-way tie for first in the Division 3 science category.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.