Salem High School Comes from Behind to Defeat Plymouth Regional High

(DURHAM, MAY 12. 2018) – What figure of speech gives human qualities to non-human things? The answer — personification — closed out championship game of this season of Granite State Challenge, and helped Salem High School secure a win over Plymouth Area Regional High School. Plymouth maintained a lead throughout the game, but Salem pulled ahead in the final two minutes of the game, dominating the final questions and preventing a comeback from Plymouth. The final score was 460 to 400.

The Salem Blue Devils were represented by captain Tony Consentino, Aidan Gallo, Jonathan Tarness, and Ricky Jeffreys, with alternates Alexis Ahern and Oba Oseghali. They were coached by Bernie Campbell. Representing the Plymouth Bobcats were captain Richard Lyons, Rhys Harris, Konner Bird, and Martin Runquist, as well as alternates Austin Sanders and Clayton Titus. They were coached by Jay Fogarty and Troy Harris.

The win was emotional for coach Salem coach Bernie Campbell, who won the Granite State Challenge championship as a student for Salem in 2002. "I've got three seniors on this team who brought Salem Quiz Bowl back from the dead," he said. "I'm really proud of them."

The seniors, Tony Consentino, Aidan Gallo and Jonathan Tarness are friends who decided their freshman year that participating in Granite State Challenge's Super Sunday qualifying round would be fun. They arrived at that Super Sunday without a coach, took the 100-question test and qualified on their own — a challenging feat that many team's with coaches don't achieve. Upon hearing that their students qualified, Salem High School enlisted Granite State Challenge veteran Campbell to coach the team.

Salem will move on to compete in the first-ever High School Quiz Show Invitational at WGBH in Boston against the winners of Maine Public’s High School Quiz Show: Maine . The winner of that game will face the winner of the semifinal game between Massachusetts and Rhode Island in a battle to decide the High School Quiz Show Invitational champion.

Hosted by Jim Jeannotte, the popular quiz contest began the season with Granite State Challenge Super Sunday at Manchester Community College. 46 New Hampshire high school teams took a qualifying test to secure one of only 16 spots on Granite State Challenge.  At the conclusion of the season, this year’s Granite State Challenge champion

New Hampshire's top high school academic teams demonstrate remarkable teamwork, quick thinking and smarts as they play Granite State Challenge. 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.

Watch Granite State Challenge Saturdays at 6 PM on New Hampshire PBS, with multiple airdates on NHPBS and NHPBS EXPLORE. You can view the latest games, try your hand at online GSC Quizzes and track the progress of your favorite team at nhpbs.org/gsc.

Granite State Challenge is generously funded by lead sponsor Unitil; additional funding is provided by NEA-New Hampshire, Heinemann Publishing, New Hampshire Lottery, D.F. Richard Energy, HRCU Measured Progress, the NHHEAF Network Organizations, and Super Sunday Sponsor Manchester Community College.

Pressroom Contact

Carla Gordon Russell
Director of Communications
crussell@nhpbs.org
(603) 868-4339