Walkersville Academic Team Made it to Finals!
WHS Lions Pride Original Story:
The Walkersville High School Academic Team has been an amazing representation of Walkersville pride this year in all of their tournaments. On Friday, February 22, the WHS team went to their last competition, along with Linganore and Governor Thomas Johnson. The winners of this competition would go onto the finals, to be held later that evening.
In every tournament, there are five rounds. Each round has a different amount of questions. For every question answered correctly, the school is awarded a point. For every question answered incorrectly, a point is taken away. Any team can buzz in, and answer questions.
Round one is 10 questions long, and usually has a random theme, this week was U.S. Geography. The first round always goes fast. Most teams buzzing in answers before the questions are even finished being asked. Walkersville started off strong, finishing this round with the most points.
During round two, starting one school at a time, the students are given six questions. (Since there is no racing to buzz in first, this round usually takes a little longer.) With only the assigned school allowed to answer, the students are asked various, random, questions. While teams are deliberating their answer, the crowd sits eerily silent. Walkersville finished this round in the lead with 9 points, Linganore with 7, and TJ with 6.
Round three is known as the “math round,” switching off between random, as well as math based questions. This round goes slower, after all, it takes longer to solve questions like “What is the length of the longest chord of a circle whose area is 121PI square meters?” Each question holds a 30 second time limit, if no school buzzes in within the time limit, then no team is awarded a point.
The fourth round is a themed round, every week, the fourth round switches between various specialized themes. This week’s theme was 1969. This round ended with Walkersville at 12, Linganore at 11, and TJ at 5.
The fifth and final round is 20 questions long, just going through random questions. Walkersville finished this tournament first with 16 points, Linganore with 12, and TJ with 10. Since Walkersville won first in the tournament, the team moved onto the finals, which would be held later that night.
“Things are going as planned. We won our first match against Linganore, we’ve lost to them twice, so we got our revenge. It was gut wrenching, I tell you, that last round. My heart was in my throat. But the boys pulled it through, and now we are in the finals,” teacher advisor Bryan Stillman stated.
“Things are going great, it’s been a roller coaster watching the last round… The scores were going up and down. But when everything is said and done, I’m thrilled we were able to move onto the finals. It’s great watching my team members move onto the final round,” Academic Team member and senior Michael Flegel commented.
A few hours later, the finals had started. The three winning teams, Brunswick, Middletown, and Walkersville, were all anxious to win. During round one of finals, the theme was words that start with “re,” the 10 questions flew by.
In round two, each team was given their six questions. Brunswick pulled ahead with 9 points, Middletown with 6, and Walkersville with 4.
Tension grew going into round three, the math round. But Brunswick was on their toes, moving up to 11 points, leaving Middletown with 5, and Walkersville with 6.
Brunswick sped ahead in round four to 17 points, with Middletown and Walkersville tied at 6 points. Round five ended with Brunswick first, Walkersville second, and Middletown third. All three of the teams put up a fight, and did amazing even getting into the finals!
“At first I was upset,” junior Milan Patel stated, “but next year, my senior year, we are going to get them.” “This year was really competitive. We had a lot of really close matches,” Stillman admitted. Teacher advisor John Van Bloem agreed, “We will have a really strong year next year.” ““[My favorite part was] How cool the kids were. There were kids from every team that were friendly… They were nice and they super smart. It was fun this year, they had a fantastic year, and they deserved it,” stated former WHS English teacher, and Academic Team “Master of the Ceremonies” Eric Reickel.
The team reflected on their favorite themes from all of the tournaments. “The NFL round, that was intense,” Patel remarked. “I was all about the Roosevelts,” Stillman commented. “Well, my favorite of course are the literature questions, and the film questions,” Reickel admitted.
At the end of the evening, teacher advisor Darrin Drum was even awarded awarded the Charles “Chuck” Thomas Memorial Award. FCPS states that it is “often referred to as the curriculum specialists’ award, after the championship to an individual or group who has made significant contributions to the tournament’s success” [1]. This is a big accomplishment, and privilege for our Walkersville math teacher.
The Walkersville Academic Team worked hard all year to be on top of their game for the tournaments. They succeeded in making it to the finals, and even got second place. All of the members are psyched to come back again next year, and do even better!
