The University High School Academic Decathlon team placed eighth at the state competition in Sacramento this weekend and won its seventh consecutive small schools title.

The nine-member team, made up of five seniors and four juniors, also came home Sunday with 10 individual medals.

"What was very exciting was for the first time we had seven people win at least one medal, which is very impressive," University High coach Sean Canfield said.

Sixty-one schools competed at the 2013 California Academic Decathlon in Sacramento, which started Thursday and ended Sunday with an awards ceremony.

University High, which won the Fresno County decathlon in February, placed eighth overall with 48,357.5 points. The Edison High School Academic Decathlon team placed ninth, Canfield said.

Also attending this year's state competition were Yosemite High School in Madera County, Harmony Magnet Academy in Tulare County and Lemoore Middle College in Kings County. Their scores were not immediately available.

Senior Omoshola Aleru said the University High team has been studying subjects like math, economics, social science, language and literature since last summer.

"For the past weeks we've been prepping," Aleru said. "Sometimes we stay (after school) until 8 p.m. taking tests, just running everything."

"We're really happy because this year the test was very difficult," Aleru said.

University High will compete for its eighth small schools national title in the United States Academic Decathlon Online National Competitions in April.