St. Thomas Aquinas Defeats Fall Mountain Regional High

Granite State Challenge - Round One

(DURHAM, February 17, 2023) - St. Thomas Aquinas High defeated Fall Mountain Regional High in game three in the first round of Granite State Challenge.

Playing for Fall Mountain were captain and senior Edward Gowdy, seniors Grace St. Pierre and Kaleb Houle-Lawrence, and sophomore Braydon Patch. The team alternates were juniors, Quinn O'Connor and Braydon Lockhart. The team was coached by Nick Belsky. Fall Mountain Regional High is located in Langdon, New Hampshire, and enrolls 496 students from the towns of Langdon, Acworth, Alstead, Charlestown, and Walpole.

Playing for St. Thomas Aquinas were captain and senior Luke Monteiro, junior Cade Murphy, sophomore Charlie Monteiro, and freshman Amelia Monteiro. The team alternates were senior Ally Latsilnik and junior Merrill Tode. The team was coached by Katie Graham. St. Thomas Aquinas High is located in Dover, NH, and enrolls around 391 students.

Round One opened with a question about Pumpsie Green, who became the first black player for the Boston Red Sox in 1959 that stumped both teams. Luke Monteiro answered the next question about the novel Heidi correctly and put 10 points on the board for St. Thomas. Charlie Monteiro knew that the reduced gravity aircraft used to simulate weightlessness for astronauts is better known by the name vomit comet, picking up another 10 points for St. Thomas. Kaleb Houle-Lawrence picked up the first 10 points for Fall Mountain with a question about the game Rock, Paper, Scissors. Grace St. Pierre of Newfound Regional answered a question about Robert E. Lee and Luke Monterio picked up 20 points for St. Thomas by correctly identifying Wonder Woman as both Diana Prince and Princess Diana of Themyscira. Edward Gowdy of Fall Mountain answered the last question of the round correctly, ending the round with St. Thomas in the lead by a score of 80-30.

The second round of the game is the Three Strikes and You're Out Round. Each team picks a 10-question category and each team member, starting with the captain, gets one question. The team continues to answer questions until they miss three questions. Each team also has three passes in each round. If a team answers all 10 questions correctly, they pick up an additional 10 points. Fall Mountain picked up 30 points in the round with captain Edward Gowdy picking up points with questions about Beyonce and Kansas City and Kaleb Houle-Lawrence answering a question about the singer Lorde. St. Thomas picked up 20 points in their round when Charlie Monteiro answered a question about Thing One and Thing Two and Luke Monteiro answered a question about the game Cat's Cradle. The round ended with St. Thomas in the lead by a score of 100-60.

In the third round, alternates join their teams. Each team picks a ten-question category and has 60 seconds to answer the questions. If they answer all ten correctly, teams get up a 10-point bonus. Team members can confer in the round, but the captain answers for the team. Fall Mountain chose the category "Measuring Up." The answers to all of the clues contained a term for measurement. The team picked up 40 points in the round. St. Thomas chose the category "Here Comes the Judge." All of the answers in the category were related to the U.S. Supreme Court. The team answered eight of the ten questions in the round correctly and the round ended with them in the lead by a score of 180-100.

In the final round of the game, each correct answer is worth 20 points, but teams lose 20 points with an incorrect answer and leads can quickly be lost or gained. Luke Monteiro of St. Thomas picked up the first 40 points of the round with questions about Alice Cooper and Emmett Till. Both teams lost 40 points with questions about Thomas Paine and the Althing, Iceland's parliament. Grace St. Pierre picked up 20 points for Fall Mountain on a question about the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. Charlie Monteiro of St. Thomas came right back and answered a question about poet Amanda Gorman. Cade Murphy picked up 40 points for Fall Mountain with questions about Joe Biden and Arnold Schwarzenegger, captain Edward Gowdy, picked up another 20 points with a question about the location of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and Braydon Patch put another 20 points on the board for Fall Mountain with a question about the show, South Park. In the end, Fall Mountain was not able to overcome the lead held by St. Thomas, who went on to in the game by a score of 320-240.

St. Thomas Aquinas now moves on to the quarterfinals where they will meet the winner of the next round-one game between Hopkinton High and defending champion Portsmouth High. That game airs on Thursday, February 23 at 7:30 pm on NHPBS.

Hosted by Bow High School teacher and former Granite State Challenge coach (Bedford High), contestant (Belmont High), and Granite State Challenge crew member, Jon Cannon, 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.

You can follow your favorite team, test your own knowledge with GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE online quizzes, and more at the GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE web page or try your hands at daily brainteasers on the GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE Facebook page.

GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE is funded by lead sponsor Unitil; with additional funding from NEA New Hampshire, Safety Insurance, The New Hampshire Lottery, D.F. Richard Energy, Cognia, and HRCU.

Major funding provided by