El Camino Real High School

North Hollywood and El Camino Real high schools tied for first place Saturday in the Super Quiz portion of the local Academic Decathlon, each scoring 56 out of a possible 60 points in the grueling contest. The two schools, perennial powerhouses in the prestigious competition, were among 64 entered in the L.A. Unified School District's Super Quiz event, which was held at UCLA. El Camino, in Woodland Hills, is the reigning national champ in the Academic Decathlon.

It wasn't a sports decathlon, but you wouldn't have known it. Parents shook pompoms, coaches tried to remain calm and student competitors nervously clasped hands. And then El Camino Real High School was announced the winner of the California Academic Decathlon on Sunday before 1,000 spectators at the LAX Marriott hotel. "We were pretty much crushing each other's hands the last 20 minutes," said Shengya Cao, 17, a senior at El Camino in Woodland Hills.

Since arriving here earlier this week, teams competing in the National Academic Decathlon in Waikiki have snorkled, hiked, visited Pearl Harbor, played Ultimate Frisbee under the stars, shopped, taken dinner cruises, hung out -- all the things you'd expect a group of teenagers to do on what is, for many, their first trip to Hawaii. But the eight students from El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, who arrived Monday, have opted for a different Hawaiian experience.

The library at El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills feels a bit like UCLA's Pauley Pavilion, so numerous are the championship banners hanging from the rafters. Now the librarians will need to find room for one more. El Camino won the National Academic Decathlon for a record-tying fifth time Saturday, defeating teams from Illinois and Wisconsin that had hoped to crack Southern California's near-lock on success in the event.

The El Camino Real High School students who won the U.S. Academic Decathlon on Saturday in Honolulu returned Tuesday to Los Angeles International Airport, where they were serenaded in baggage claims by their school's marching band. Wearing medals instead of leis, the eight-member team from Woodland Hills was greeted about 4 p.m. by two dozen band members who performed their school's fight song, then Queen's "We Are the Champions."

A team of nine seniors from El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills was awarded the statewide Academic Decathlon championship Sunday, earning a trip to Chicago and a chance to defend the school's national title. With three national championships in the last seven years, El Camino is the second-winningest school to participate in the nationwide contest, which was founded in 1982 and tests students in 10 subjects, such as math and music theory. J.J.

A Chatsworth tournament baseball game between Woodland Hills El Camino Real and Sun Valley Poly was halted in the fourth inning Saturday after the father of an El Camino Real player went into the Poly dugout and got into a scuffle with two coaches at El Camino Real High, according to a report filed by umpires. The incident started after the El Camino Real player was hit by a pitch. He alleged it was intentional and that a racial slur had been made.

When ponytail-sporting, self-professed academic slouch Micah Roth was approached by his history teacher about joining the Academic Decathlon squad at El Camino Real High School -- the reigning national champions -- he was dumbfounded. "Have you seen my grades?" Roth, 17, recalls saying, referring to his C grade-point average. The teacher had indeed seen Roth's marks, and they were precisely why coaches at the Woodland Hills school wanted him.

El Camino Real High School of Woodland Hills captured its second straight U.S. Academic Decathlon championship Saturday after a grueling two-day battery of tests on subjects including calculus, astronomy and the history and literature of ancient civilizations. It was the fourth national title in eight years for state champion El Camino, second only to J.J. Pearce High School in Richardson, Texas, which has won five national championships since the contest's 1982 inception.

The penthouse of El Camino Real High School looks more like the aftermath of an all-night party than headquarters for a teenage brain trust. Sleeping bags are piled in one corner and the games Trivial Pursuit and Balderdash sit on the kitchen counter. Open bags of potato and tortilla chips spill out of the cabinets.