Verdugo Hills High School in Tujunga won the Los Angeles Unified School District’s 44th Annual Academic Decathlon, Saturday at East Los Angeles Community College in Monterey Park.

“Congratulations to Verdugo Hills High School decathletes on winning the 44th Annual Los Angeles Unified Academic Decathlon,” LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said. “We are incredibly proud of our students for their dedication, perseverance, and countless hours of hard work before and after school in preparation for this competition. Your commitment to academic excellence is truly inspiring. A heartfelt thank you to every coach, family member, school staff member, and friend who has supported our decathletes along the way. Wishing you all the best in the state championship — go shine!”

Verdugo Hills’ team of Airin Avanesian, Bowie Perez, Anthony Morini, Charlize Dial, Gianni Fuentes, Harrison Barrett, Miles Ketchum, Lilit Khachatryan and Stephany Gutierrez earned 45,164.4 out of 60,000 points, school officials said.

Decathlon Coach Evae Silva and Principal Arturo Barcenas were honored with the LAUSD Decathlon Hall of Fame Plaque. The campus is located at 10625 Plainview Ave., a few blocks north of Foothill Boulevard and east of Sunland.

Some 47 high-school teams participated in this year’s decathlon. Students were honored with medals, trophies and scholarships.

The other top-finishing schools were:

–Bell High School with 43.028.2 points;

–Northridge Academy High School with 39,351.9 points;

–Abraham Lincoln High School with 38,969.7 points;

–Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies with 38,387.5 points;

–Van Nuys High School with 38,264.2 points; and

–The Science Academy STEM Magnet with 37,495.2 points.

All seven schools will advance to the California Academic Decathlon on March 20-23 in Santa Clara. The LAUSD holds 23 state titles, more than any district in California, and 19 national titles.

Teams studied and prepared for the 2024-2025 theme “Our Changing Climate” in order to compete in 10 events. Events included art, economics, essay, an interview, language and literature, math, music, science, social science and speech.

Participants in the decathlon were from all grade point averages: 3.80 and up (Honors group); 3.20-3.799 (Scholastic group); up to 3.199 (Varsity group).

Medals were given out to students for their individual top overall scores, and also for top scores for each of the 10 decathlon events at the ceremony.

More than 700 high school decathletes, parents, staff from schools, plus LAUSD school board officials Scott M. Schmerelson, president, and Dr. Rocio Rivas, vice president, and Beyond the Bell Executive Director Debe Loxton attended the event, according to a LAUSD press release, .

The LAUSD academic decathlon is run through the district’s Beyond the Bell program (https://btb.lausd.org/). Details about LAUSD Academic Decathlon: tinyurl.com/4k9w9cjx

By the way, the 43rd annual LAUSD winning team for the 2023-2024 academic decathlon competition was Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies (https://shermanoaksces.lausd.org/).

The 2024-2025 top-scoring team, plus “wild card” teams, move on to compete on March 20-23 at the California Academic Decathlon in Santa Clara. www.facebook.com/AcademicDecathlon/

The winning team from the California Academic Decathlon goes on to compete in the United States Academic Decathlon, May 1-3, in Des Moines, Iowa. www.facebook.com/officialacademicdecathlon/