Academic Team Loses Close Match for First Defeat of the Year
by Nathaniel Mulitauaopele
The academic team tournament match five was held on Friday, February 3, 2017. Walkersville competed in a close, teeth grinding match.
The competitors for this match were Walkersville, Middletown, and TJ.
The first round started with a Middletown lead, Walkerville having dug themselves in and out of a hole due to their incorrect answering of questions. TJ answered no questions in the first round. Walkersville had grabbed up most of the responses.
The scores were: Middletown 1, TJ 0, Walkersville 0
The second round, a round where teams chose each others packets was about how correctly you could answer the questions in the packet. Middletown answered five of their questions correctly, TJ answered four correctly, and Walkersville, astonishingly answered all six question in their packet correctly, tying it up with Middletown.
The scores were: Middletown 6, TJ 4, Walkersville, 6
The third round, the math round is where Middletown really pulled ahead, and where TJ caught up turning the game into a close match. Walkerville gains one point, Middletown gains two, and TJ one.
The scores are: Middletown 9, TJ 7, Walkersville 8
The fourth round was themed after the Russian revolution. TJ gains the most points this round, edging even closer to the front runners, really turning this into an interesting game. Walkersville and Middletown get out of this round gaining one point, holding their respective positions.
The scores are: Middletown 9, TJ 7, Walkersville 8
Round five starts, and a TJ is awarded two points for previously missed questions that the judges, after review decided to give back. This shocks the crowd, as they are now tied with the front running Middletown team. The game becomes intense, but it becomes clear that the battle is between Walkersville and Middletown. In the end, Walkersville loses too many points to incorrect answers, and Middletown begins to buzz in quicker than any of the other teams, and wins the match.
The final score is Middletown 14, TJ 10, Walkersville 11 a heartbreaking defeat for Walkersville.
“We won every single match before this.” said Senior Caleb Chen. “We all did our best.” he added.
In a speech to the Academic team at the end of the match coach Van Bloem expressed his dissatisfaction with the team. “We had an off game.” he said.
There were multiple questions Coach Darrin Drum said “We had no reason to miss.” as they had “Discussed it earlier in class. An example was Dr Zhivago who was discussed in class earlier today. They need to pay attention to what’s in practice.” said Van Bloem
There were a few things however Van Bloem and Drum were happy with. Roshni Patel, the captain of the second round which answered all six of their questions correctly was given an award for her efforts.
“Second round team did a great job.” said Van Bleum “I liked Patrick Huber [and] how he didn’t buzz in on any of the nine math questions, but answered the last one. It showed he was focused on the questions.”
This fifth match of the tournament was extremely intense, and came down to the wire, but in the end Middletown pulled it out, leaving TJ and Walkersville in defeat. Walkersville remains in second place in the overall standing. Next match is next Friday.
