Merrimack High Edges Out ConVal Regional High in Close GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE Match

Bring It On!

Durham, NH (April 18, 2025) - Merrimack High School narrowly beat the ConVal Cougars, 330-290, in the quarterfinal round of GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE on New Hampshire PBS to advance and stay alive to defend its title.

Playing for the ConVal Cougars was 11th grader Lukas Baker, 11th graders Ben Michaud and Remy Kekuewa-Colon and 12th grader Owen Beaulieu. The Cougars' alternates were 12th grader Kyle Austin and 11th grader Brian Alonso. The team was led by coaches and social studies teachers Eric Bowman and Chris Heider. ConVal enrolls 737 students and enrolls students from Antrim, Bennington, Dublin, Francestown, Greenfield, Hancock, Peterborough, Sharon and Temple.

The Merrimack High Tomahawks was led by 12th-grade captain Erin Murray along with 12th-graders Liam MacIsaac and Maeve LaRock and 11th-grader Avis Clever. The team's two alternates were 12^th grader Hikari McDowell and 11^th grader Lauren Murby. The team was coached by chemistry teacher Dr. Sara Campbell and physics teacher, Liz Dumais. The two-time defending champions enroll 1,087 students.

ROUND ONE

The game opened with a question about diving, which stumped both teams. Merrimack picked up 10 points on the next question about Sherwood Forest and ConVal picked up points on a question about the St. Lawrence River and the game was on! 

ConVal added 20 points to their score on the Unitil Power Question, correctly identifying Leo Tolstoy as the author who wrote in his novel War and Peace, "Power is a word the meaning of which we do not understand."  They added another 10 points to their score on the next question about the Venus flytrap. 

 Merrimack came back with three correct answers in a row on questions about Maurice Sendak, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the game Battleship. Not to be outdone, ConVal picked up 40 points on questions about Frosty, Snoop Dogg, the only mountain above 20,000 feet in the U.S., and the movie in which Angela Lansbury played a teapot.

At the end of the round, Merrimack held a slim lead of 110-100.

“We knew ConVal was a good team. We knew it was going to be tough. I was excited in the first round, we started to pull away a little bit,” said Coach Campbell.”

ROUND TWO – THREE STRIKES AND YOU’RE OUT

In the Three Strikes and You're Out Round, each team gets a 10-question category and each team member gets one question starting with the captain. 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. 

This round was tough on both teams.

ConVal correctly answered the first question about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but failed to pick up any points on questions about Allen Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac, or the now-abandoned Portsmouth Naval Prison, which was featured in the 1973 movie, The Last Detail and the team only picked up 10 points in the round.

Merrimack captain Erin passed her first question about Marlon Brando to her teammate Liam, who came up with the wrong response. The team couldn't answer the next two questions about Mike Pence and the number of blackbirds baked in a pie in the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Six Pence" and the round ended in a 110-110 tie.

ROUND THREE – 60-SECOND ROUND  

In the 60-Second Round alternates join their teams. Each team picks a 10-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.

ConVal chose the category “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” All the answers in the category included the words “wolf” or “wolves.”

The team easily answered eight of the 10 questions in the category correctly, only missing questions about Wolfgang Puck and the Irish wolfhound.

The two remaining categories were "Hit a Brick Wall" and "Banned Books." Merrimack chose "Hit a Brick Wall." All the answers in this category included the word or the sound "brick." The team missed only two questions - one about the Pink Floyd song, "Brick in the Wall" and the other about what a physical store is called - brick and mortar.

The round ended in a 190-190 tie. 

FINAL ROUND – TOSS UP  

In the final round, 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.

With the score tied, it was important for both teams to play carefully, as an incorrect answer would lead to them losing points.  

The first question was a special video question asked by Miss New Hampshire, Emily Spencer about a 2002 case dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court that sought to establish that the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard was part of New Hampshire, not Maine. ConVal gave an incorrect answer and lost 20 points.

Merrimack picked up 40 points on the next two questions about Confucius and the semicolon.

ConVal picked up 40 points on a video question from NH author Rebecca Rule about the Fisher Cats and a math question about the area of a room. 

The round went on with both teams picking up points and keeping the score close and with less than a minute left in the game, the score was tied 250-250.

Merrimack picked up 60 points on the next three questions about the beluga whale, David Copperfield, and scurvy, bringing the score to 310-250. ConVal picked up 40 points on questions about toucans and Ukraine and the score was now 310-290 with time for only one more question.

A correct answer by ConVal or an incorrect answer by Merrimack would tie the game. A correct answer by Merrimack would win the game.  Merrimack captain Erin buzzed in and correctly identified Phoebe Bridgers as the artist who released the album Stranger in the Alps in 2017, locking in the win for Merrimack by a final score of 330-290.

ConVal left the game knowing that they had proven themselves to be worthy opponents. “I think we did a pretty solid job. Merrimack has been the past champion for several years. We kept it pretty close, and I think we did a pretty good job,” said ConVal’s Remy Kekeuwa-Colon.

His teammate Owen Beaulieu. agreed. “I thought the match was close. The second round was a little rough, but I think we kept it close, and we kept it tight the whole game.”

Merrimack's captain Erin Murray attributes her team's win to teamwork. “I think the fourth round is our most important round. We can play a strong fourth round. And that’s a lot of buzzing, and knowing the answer, and just trusting in your team, knowing who knows it the best, and letting them get it, because I think we can't just rely on our middle round anymore.”

Merrimack’s coach Campbell is already thinking about what her team needs to do as they move on to the semifinals. “We are going to make sure they get some rest and stay calm. It’s very easy to psych yourself out for something like this. We need to make sure that we play our game and not worry about them playing theirs.”

Merrimack will move on to the semifinal against the winner of the match between Bedford and Profile on the next game of GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE airing on Thursday, April 24 at 8:30 p.m. on NHPBS. You can also stream it 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 brain teasers 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: GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE is hosted by Bow High School teacher Jon Cannon.  Cannon has a long history with GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE. You might say he grew up with the game.  He was a member of the Belmont High team when he was in high school, was a member of the NHPBS GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE crew when he was in college at UNH and was the coach of the Bedford High GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE team.

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