ConVal Regional High Bests Hopkinton High

(DURHAM, March 13, 2022)  ConVal Regional High defeated Hopkinton High in the sixth game of the 40th season of Granite State Challenge.

Playing for ConVal were captain and senior Meara McClusky and seniors Leah Krason, Kendall Larson, and Sam Rousseau. They were joined by alternates seniors Elijah White and Gwyneth Inglis. The team was coached by Chris Heider and Eric Bowman. ConVal Regional High enrolls 737 students and is located in Peterborough. It serves the towns of Antrim, Bennington, Dublin, Francestown, Greenfield, Hancock, Peterborough, Sharon, and Temple. 

Playing for Hopkinton High were captain and junior Giselle Spalding, junior Hal Stokes, sophomore Colton Murphy, and sophomore Adam Richter along with alternates juniors Aliya Kaynak and Piper Otis. Hopkinton High is coached by Matthew Krogman and enrolls 271 students.

Granite State Challenge is played in four rounds. In the first round, correct answers are worth 10 points and there is no penalty for an incorrect answer. Leah Krason scored the first 10 points of the game for ConVal. Colton Murphy put the first points on the board for Hopkinton. Kendall Larson picked up the next 10 points for ConVal and Adam Richter came right back and picked up 10 points for Hopkinton. Both teams played a strong first round, but at the end of the round, Hopkinton led by a score of 150-100.

In the second round, correct answers are worth 20 points, and like in the first round, there is no penalty for an incorrect answer.  The round usually contains two questions worth 40 points - the Unitil Power Question, and the 40 for 40 question, which honors the 40th season of Granite State Challenge and is taken from a past season of Granite State Challenge.  Neither team could answer the first question about the opening line of the novel Pride and Prejudice. Sam Rousseau of ConVal put the first points on the board by correctly answering a math question. The next question was the 40-point Unitil Power Question.  Neither team was able to identify the children's show, The Electric Company. Meara McClusky of ConVal picked up 20 points by identifying the South Korean band, BTS, and Leah Krason answered two questions in a row correctly, adding 40 more points to ConVal's score.  Hopkinton's Hal Stokes answered the 40-40 question about the Munchkin's advice to Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz to follow the yellow brick road and added 40 points to his team's score. At the end of the round, ConVal had taken the lead by a score of 320 - 250.

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. Hopkinton captain Giselle Spalding selected the category "T-time " - the answers to all of the questions contained a single letter T.  The team answered seven questions out of ten and added 70 points to their score.  ConVal captain Meara McClusky chose the category "Place Names" in which all of the answers were individuals with a first or last name that is also a place. ConVal was only able to pick up 10 points in the round.  The round ended with ConVal still in the lead, but only by 10 points with a score of 330-320.

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. Kendall Larson of ConVal picked up the first 20 points in the round by correctly naming indigo as a member of the bean family used to make blue dye. ConVal played an aggressive round and in the end, Hopkinton was not able to overtake them, and ConVal won the match with a score of 490-340.

ConVal now goes on to meet Portsmouth High in the third game of the quarterfinals airing on Saturday, April 9, 2022, 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.

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Carla Gordon Russell
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(603) 868-4339