Plymouth Regional High Defeats Academy for Science and Design

(DURHAM, February 13, 2022)  -  Plymouth Regional High defeated the Academy for Science and Design in the second game of the first round of the 40th season of Granite State Challenge.

Playing for the Academy for Science and Design was Captain and junior Shikhar G., junior Sedi G.,  junior Arvin C., and junior Shreenath M. The team alternate was junior Ryan  The team was coached by Shawn Kraus. The Academy for Science and Design is a charter school and is located in Nashua. 

Playing for Plymouth Regional High were Captain and senior Katherine Luehrs, sophomore Khalil Dahklia, junior Natalie Boyer, and junior Trevor Tobine. The team alternate was junior Jason Vuong.  Plymouth was coached by Jay Fogarty and Troy Harris. Plymouth Regional High enrolls 674  students from Plymouth, Ashland, Holderness, Campton, Rumney, Wentworth, Warren, Ellsworth, Waterville Valley, and Thornton.

Granite State Challenge is played in four rounds.  In the first round of the game, correct answers are worth 10 points and there is no loss of points for an incorrect answer.  Shreenath kicked off the game and scored 10 points for the Academy for Science and Design by correctly identifying Donald Duck as the uncle of Huey, Dewey, and Louie.  Plymouth came right back and Khalil named "High Hopes" as the theme song for the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy. Plymouth went on to win the round by a score of 170 to 50.

In the second round, correct answers are worth 20 points and there is no loss of point for an incorrect answer.  The round opened with a question asking players to identify what the E in email stands for. Neither team knew that the answer was "electronic."  Shreenath answered the second question of the round correctly by identifying Hugh Jackman as the actor who portrayed Wolverine in the X-men movies, picking up 20 points for the Academy for Science and Design. Shreenath also answered the Unitil Power Question correctly by knowing The Guardians of the Galaxy  Volume 2 was the movie that opened with Groot dancing to  "Mr. Blue Sky" by the Electric Light Orchestra, picking up 40 points for the Academy for Science and Design. Katherine of Plymouth came right back in identified Babe as Paul Bunyan's blue ox, adding 20 points to Plymouth's score. Natalie of Plymouth answered the 40 for 40 question correctly, identifying Concord as the New Hampshire city once known as the town of Rumford, picking up 40 points for her team. The round ended with Plymouth still in the lead by a score of 310 to 150.

The third 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.

Academy for Science and Design chose the category "Hip Hop " in which all of the answers included the words hip or hop.  They correctly identified seven out of ten answers picking up 70 points, missing questions about hippies, hippogriffs, and hope as the thing with wings in an Emily Dickinson poem.

Plymouth picked the category "Get Some Zs" - the answers to all of the questions in the category included the double Zs. The team missed only one question about mezzanines,  ending their round with a pickup of 90 points, and a score of 400 to 220.

In the final round, correct answers are worth 20 points, but an incorrect answer will cost a team 20 points and leads can be quickly lost or gained. Khalil of Plymouth put the first 20 points on the board in the round by correctly naming the BeeGees as the band who had a hit with the song"Massachusetts.'  Natalie of Plymouth added another 20 points to Plymouth's score by naming edelweiss as the flower Captain von Trapp sings about in the Sound of Music. Sedi of the Academy for Science and Design knew that Sherwood Forest was the home to Robin Hood and his men.  Trevor of Plymouth picked up 20 points by knowing that Bedrock was the home of Fred, Wilma, Barney, and Betty in The Flintstones. In the end, Plymouth won the round and the game by a score of 480-180.

Plymouth now moves on to the quarterfinals where they will meet defending champions Merrimack High on April 9 at 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.

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, New Hampshire Lottery, D.F. Richard, Cognia, and HRCU.

Pressroom Contact

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