The Tilton School Rams Beat the Gilford High Golden Eagles on Granite State Challenge

The Games Are Afoot!

(DURHAM, February 21, 2025) - The Tilton Rams beat the Gilford Golden Eagles on GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE in Round One, 250-40.

The Gilford High included team captain and 12th grader Ben Wolpin, along with Clark Blackwelder and Andrew Gately who are both 12th graders and 11^th grader Landon Akerstrom. The alternates were 12th graders Katie Strickland and Ben Smith. Team coaches were Spanish teacher Meghan Zelaya and librarian Corey Nazer. Gilford High enrolls 491 students from Gilford and Gilmanton.

The Tilton Rams team included 12th grader and captain Lex Condodemetraky, 11thgraders Niko Condodemetraky and Jamie Scott and 12thgrader Sebastian DeVeaux. The Tilton team alternates were 11th grader Turner Bottomley and 10th grader Nathaniel Colon. The Rams were coached by Spanish teacher Keelan Mackenzie, and social media and content specialist Lauren Robinson. Tilton School is a private boarding school that enrolls 220 students.

This was the Rams’ first time back to Granite State Challenge in multiple decades, and their return is thanks to team captain Lex Condodemetraky’s passion for the show. At Tilton School, seniors have to work on a “Legacy” project, and his project was to start a team to compete in GSC.

“Every single senior has to do something, whether that's a fundraiser or something for a hockey game like getting special jerseys,” said Tilton team captain Lex. “I chose to start a Granite State Challenge team because that’s something I'm passionate about, and I want Tilton to have it in the future. I've been watching the show for a while, and I did the recruiting and got a coach for the team.”

ROUND ONE

In the first round, the Golden Eagles were on a winning streak. Ben, Clark, Andrew and Landon all answered questions correctly at different points to get an early lead. Gilford team captain Ben answered the video question correctly to double the points.

Tilton’s team captain Lex and team member Sebastian played their part, but the Golden Eagles were beating them to the buzzer, and the round ended, 100-40, in Gilford’s favor.

ROUND TWO – THREE STRIKES AND YOU’RE OUT

In round two, Ben and Clark answered the first two questions correctly for the Golden Eagles, but Landon and Andrew were stumped by theirs. Ben passed on the next question. Fortunately, Clark answered it right. However, the next one stumped them once again, and after Landon and Andrew used their passes Ben was unable to come up with the right answer. This meant that they extended the lead by 30 points.

The Rams had a great second round, answering three in a row correctly to start and three more after exhausting two of their passes. They doubled the Eagles' score and closed in, ending the round just 30 points behind Gilford. with a score of 130-100.

ROUND THREE – 60-SECOND ROUND

In the 60-second 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 a 10-point bonus. Team members can confer in the round, but the captain answers.

Sometimes in trivia, you need a little luck. Tilton had first choice because it was the team trailing, and the Rams chose “Reach for the Stars,” a category where every answer includes the word “Star.”

The Rams rattled off Starlord, Starbucks, Star Wars, and Star of David and went on to pick up 90 points in the round, giving the team the first lead of the game.

“I was so proud of them after the first round. I think we were down by 60. Just seeing everybody take a deep breath, and collect themselves, It’s what we worked on in practice.” said Coach MacKenzie of the Tilton Rams “We got a buzzer system for practice, and it was just great to see that practice pay off.”

Gilford knew they needed to perform well, but the distance was not an insurmountable challenge. The Golden Eagles chose “Take a Vowel,” a category where each correct answer was a word that contained all five vowels. The Gilford Eagles were able to answer three of their ten questions in a very tough category and went into the final round trailing with a score of 190-160.

FINAL ROUND – TOSS-UP

In the final round of the game, each correct answer is worth 20 points, but teams lose 20 points with an incorrect answer and a lead can be easily lost or gained in the round.

Gilford answered their first two questions wrong, which led to them losing 40 points, while Lex got two right picking up 40 points for the Tilton Rams and widening the to widen the point spread from 30 points to 110 points.

“It is what it is then, in the last round, I thought they tried really hard. At that point, they were so far behind, because the previous round had gone so poorly. They did the best they could to try to come back,” said Gilford Coach Nazer.

The Golden Eagles were in a tough spot and were running out of time to re-take the lead, but unfortunately, they continued to miss questions and lost more points than they gained while the Rams had the breathing room to choose their buzz-ins carefully.

In the end, the Golden Eagles' struggles in rounds three and four cost them some ground, and the Rams cleverly capitalized to win, 250-40. The Rams move on to the quarterfinals where they will meet the winners for the next first-round match between Kingswood Regional and Portsmouth High School. Their quarterfinal game will airs on Thursday, April 10 at 8:30 p.m. on NHPBS

“I’m really happy with how we did,” said Tilton captain Lex Condodemetraky. “I've been watching the show for the last two seasons and it was so much fun to actually be there and play. I'm happy that we got a win, definitely, but I'm also happy that we got to be there and do it for ourselves.”

Catch the next episode of GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE when Kingswood Regional takes on Portsmouth High on Thursday, February 27th at 8:30 p.m. on NHPBS. You can also stream all of the games on the PBS App, the NHPBS YouTube channel, or online at nhpbs.org/gsc.

Test your 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 Bangor Savings Bank, Safety Insurance, NEA New Hampshire and Aroma Joe’s.

About Host Jon Cannon: 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 some of New Hampshire's brightest high school students 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.