Small But Mighty Littleton High Defeats Hanover High

Granite State Challenge - Quarterfinals

With only around 220 students, Littleton High School is one of New Hampshire smallest public high schools, but in their match against Hanover High, which with around 750 students is over four times as large as Littleton, the Crusaders showed that size isn't everything when it comes to winning on Granite State Challenge!

The Hanover Marauders were only able to field a team of three for the quarterfinals. Playing for the Hanover High Marauders was freshman Daniel Bender, senior Oliver Minshall, and captain Liam Szczepiorkowski. Bill Murphy coached the team.

The Crusaders of Littleton High were represented by captain junior Jenna Doucette, junior Marcos Silveira, senior Aidan Hastings, freshman Vincent Silva and alternates junior Naomi Nunez and junior Breanna Corliss. The team was coached by Charles Denny.

At the end of Round One, after answering correctly questions about Paddington Bear, Chinese general and philosopher Sun Tzu, and Frank Sinatra, Littleton had a slight lead of 120-90. In Round Two, Littleton came on strong and extended their lead to 300-170.

In the 60-second Round, Hanover chose the category "E-males" and correctly identified seven out of ten males with first names of surnames beginning with the letter "E." Littleton chose the category "IOUs" and correctly identified eight out of ten words, phrases or names containing the letters I-O-U- and S and the round ended with Littleton holding on to the lead with a score of 380-240.

In the third round, where an incorrect answer can cost a team 20 points, Hanover played aggressively, and with 35 seconds left in the game trailed Littleton by only 20 points. Both teams came up blank on a question about Uriah Heep, but Littleton correctly answered questions about The Call of the Wild and Helen of Troy and won the game by a final score of 520-460

The winner of this quarterfinal game will face either Manchester Central High or Souhegan High in the semifinals. Manchester Central and Souhegan meet April 6 @ 6 pm on NHPBS.

Granite State Challenge features New Hampshire's top high school academic quiz teams as they demonstrate remarkable teamwork, quick thinking and smarts to beat the clock and buzz in first on this iconic New Hampshire game show. The game emphasizes quick recall of math, science, social studies, language arts, and fine arts facts—along with questions about current events, entertainment, sports and New Hampshire.

Granite State Challenge is funded by lead sponsor Unitil, with additional funding from NEA New Hampshire, Heinemann Publishing, New Hampshire Lottery, D.F. Richard Energy, HRCU, Measured Progress, The NHHEAF Network Organizations, and Safety Insurance and Super Sunday partner, Manchester Community College