Garfield High Makes Strong Super Quiz Showing

East Los Angeles’ Garfield High School scored 58 out of a possible 60 points to finish on top in the oral portion of the California Academic Decathlon Super Quiz on Saturday, a competition featuring strong performances by Los Angeles County schools.

Two-time defending state champion El Camino Real High School of Woodland Hills finished 1 point behind Garfield to take second place in the oral test.

Burbank High School finished third and Belmont High came in fourth.

The results of the written portion of the Super Quiz will be announced today, along with the overall winners of the decathlon.

Alemany High of Mission Hills, representing Southern California private schools in the competition, finished with a score of 53. Glen A. Wilson High School of Hacienda Heights also did well, scoring scored 54.

Garfield, which finished second to El Camino last month in the Los Angeles Unified School District finals, was one of eight schools in the state to receive a wild card entry to the finals. Wild card slots go to the non-winning teams with the highest scores.

Deirdra Martinez of Garfield said the secret to her school’s success was teamwork.

“On our own we are good, but as a team we are great,” Martinez said. “We really worked hard and supported each other and it paid off. I’m so excited I can’t believe it.”

In all, more than 400 California students took part in the grueling, two-day competition, which matched regional winners against each other.

The overall decathlon winner, to be announced today during an awards ceremony at the Industry Hills Sheraton, will go on to represent California in the national finals next month in Providence, R.I.

Saturday’s Super Quiz, the last and only public portion of the event, was held before hundreds of raucous friends and family members in the Cal Poly Pomona gymnasium.

As Garfield’s school band played the Olympic theme, the students filed into the auditorium and nervously took their seats in the stands.

The nine-member teams split into three groups of three students each, taking turns on the floor to answer a series of rapid-fire questions based on this year’s decathlon theme: “Globalization: The New Economy.”

Before Saturday’s Super Quiz, participants had taken comprehensive written tests in science, social science, mathematics, music, literature, art and language.

They also had to deliver a speech, write an essay and be interviewed by a panel of decathlon judges.

The Super Quiz represents less than one-tenth of a team’s total score, but it is often a good indicator of how a school will do overall.

El Camino students said that their strong performance in the Super Quiz was a positive omen.

“At the [Los Angeles Unified School District] finals we finished third in the Super Quiz and we went on to win it all,” said senior Taimur Baig.

“You never know, but I feel good about our chances.”