Waukesha West High School finished second to a rival from California on Saturday as it competed in its eighth national Academic Decathlon competition.
The team won the national title in 2002 and has come close to repeating several times, including last year, when it also lost to Moorpark High School from Moorpark, Calif., by the equivalent of a single question.
This year's margin was a little larger - the equivalent of about 16 questions - lessening the heartbreak a bit, said Duane Stein, the coach of the squad.
"Strangely enough, that makes it a little bit easier," Stein said.
This year's group included more new recruits, while last year's team was mostly returning members, said senior Jeff Spence, who competed with the squad for the last three years.
"It was exciting to see that with an almost entirely new team we could come so close again," Spence said. "It was much more rewarding than I thought it would be."
The Waukesha squad did take first place in the only public event of the Decathlon, the oral relay, which was attended by about 600 people, Stein said. For that event, the students answered 43 of 45 questions about Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution accurately.
"That's just high pressure," Stein said.
Of the 60,000 possible points, Waukesha West earned 50,980, while Moorpark High earned 51,290.
"They were really graceful winners," said Mitch Hodson, who competed on the Waukesha team. "They are a really amazing team, and it was great competing with them."
This year's national competition, which was held in Memphis, Tenn., started Wednesday and ran through Saturday.
The competition featured teams of students whose scores on tests, essays, interviews and speeches are tallied for an overall total. Each nine-member team is evenly divided among students with A, B and C grade averages.