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Academic Challenge Wins Consecutive Central District Scholastic Bowl

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Academic Challenge Team 2012
By Kim Carneal, Features Editor
No, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is not the Mark Twain novel that involves a boy on a raft, with a runaway slave, but the Academic Challenge team didn’t need that point to repeat as Central District Champions on Thurs., Jan. 19th, at Thomas Dale High School. They scored enough with the rest of their answers to easily defeat the competition by no fewer than 100 points in all but one of the head-to-head rounds.

Five teams participated including Prince George, Thomas Dale, Colonial Heights, Dinwiddie and Matoaca. The purpose of the Scholastic Bowl is to test students’ knowledge on a wide range of specific categories, such as English, math, science, social studies and various current events. Current invents can include entertainment, arts and sports.

Coached by teachers Vicki Hale and Dan Pulskamp, Academic Challenge lost to Matoaca in the first round, but then came back to win the rest of their matches in the double elimination tournament.

“The most satisfying moment was when we were able to defeat Matoaca handily in the final round,” senior Dalton Gibbs said. “We were confident we had the championship then.”

The members of the team are: seniors Devan Andrews, Dalton Gibbs, Evan May, Eduardo Murillo, Elizabeth Nerdig, Elizabeth Ogunbunmi, Brian Palomo, and Rachel Youmans… juniors Marshall Dunn, Sara Beth Howard, Nelson Leary, and Jack Semrau.

Academic Challenge will participate in the Regional Scholastic Bowl at Deep Run High School in Henrico County, in February.

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  • C

    Chloe AlexanderMar 29, 2012 at 8:38 pm

    When I first read the introduction, I had to think about it for a second. I would have definitely missed that question considering it sounds right.. at first. I have a great respect for Academic Challenge, even though I am not in it. This article was great in that it showed that it is more than a club for “nerds” or whatever, because it is also modern with current events. I am proud to say that Prince George represented at the Scholastic Bowl.

  • J

    Jordan ThompsonMar 25, 2012 at 1:00 pm

    A big congratulations to the Academic Challenge team as it is evident that all of their hard work has paid off with the success of yet another Central District title. I admire the Royal News for writing an article about Academic Challenge for it is not everyday you hear about this club in the hallways at school. Most students do not realize all of the opportunities our school has to offer for students interested in knowledge. I would like to say that I am proud of the Academic Challenge team because each member seems to be passionate about the organization as well as passionate for school. The article was well-written as it covered specifics about the organization and their success.

  • S

    Sarah Beth HowardMar 24, 2012 at 8:10 pm

    It greatly pleases me that TRN has put an article on the Academic Challenge team in here. The team has been working hard to prove that PGHS is not just a place with a mentality of “we never win anything”. We have grown fine with not caring about school spirit, and also Prince George needs to prove that we can also win in mind stretching activities such as Academic Challenge. We got recognized by the school board for this achievement, and we also were happy to hear about some of the student responses. I personally and quite glad that I joined this team. And I am ecstatic that our school offers an activity as fun as Academic Challenge.