Academic Challenge Wins Consecutive Central District Scholastic Bowl

Academic Challenge Team 2012

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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.