Tilton Rams Victorious Over Trinity in Close Match in the First Semifinal Match of GSC

Durham, NH (May 2, 2025) - The Tilton Rams won a nail-biter against a talented Trinity team, 290-280, to advance to Granite State Challenge’s championship match.

Playing for the Trinity Pioneers were 12th-grade captain Desmond Lee, 12th-grader Tyler Welch, and 11th graders Long Nguyen and Teagan Hilliard. The team alternate was 12th grader Madeleine Souza. Social studies teacher Andrew Lavoie and math teacher Louis Siever coached the Pioneers. Trinity, a parochial school in Manchester, enrolls around 300 students from Manchester, enrolls 300 students from Manchester, Bedford, Goffstown, Hooksett and surrounding towns.

Playing for the Tilton Rams were 12th grader captain Lex Condodemetraky, 11th graders Niko Condodemetraky and Jamie Scott and 12th grader Sebastian DeVeaux, Team alternates were 11th grader Turner Bottomley and 10th grader Nathaniel Colon. The Rams were coached by Spanish teacher Keelan Mackenzie, and Lauren Robinson, a social media and content specialist. Tilton School, a private boarding school in Tilton, enrolls around 220 students.

ROUND ONE
This round went back and forth between both teams as they both answered a wide variety of questions.

Tilton started hot as Lex, Jamie and Niko answered four questions early while Trinity’s Long scored his team’s first 10 points of the match.

Trinity’s Teagan and Desmond got in the game with some literature questions to draw the Pioneers to within 10 points of Tilton. Neither team managed to pick up 20 points on the Unitil Power about the director of the film Do the Right Thing, which featured the Public Enemy song, “Fight the Power.”  They also couldn’t answer a question about the northernmost town in New Hampshire, asked by Miss New Hampshire, Emily Spencer.

At the end of the round, Tilton was ahead by a score of 140-110.

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. 

Tilton answered round two first and successfully answered four of the first six by using two passes, but faltered on the seventh question, gaining 40 points in the round. All four of the Rams got one right in this round, providing a bit of a confidence boost.

Trinity’s Desmond and Long answered their questions right, but then Tyler and Teagan faltered on theirs before using any passes. When the question came around to Desmond he could not come up with the right answer, and the Pioneers ended with 20 points and struck out before using a pass, and the round ended with Tilton up by a score of 180-130.

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.

The trailing team, Trinity, chose a category first and went with “Birds of a Feather.” The answers in this category all included the names of birds that are also raptors.

With tough questions, the Pioneers had a great round answering things such as “Millennium Falcon,” “Seahawks,” and “Eagles” (band), picking up  70 points in the round.

The Tilton Rams opted for “Turn the Page.” This category was also challenging, as all the answers were books on the American Library Association’s list of 100 banned and challenged books of 2010-2019.

The team successfully answered, Captain Underpants, Beloved by Toni Morrison and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, to also pick up 70 points, and the round ended with Tilton in the lead by a score of 250-200.

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.

Down 50 points, the Trinity Pioneers went for the win as Desmond and Tyler combined for three consecutive correct answers to go ahead by 10 points.

Niko answered one wrong, and suddenly the Rams were down 30 points with only a handful of questions left in the round. Trinity’s Desmond widened his team’s lead with a good literature-related response.

However, Tilton’s team captain Lex answered one to bring his team within 30 again, and Jamie buzzed in fast to draw them within ten.  Lex answered the last question of the match correctly and won the match with less than 10 seconds left in the game.  

In a close battle, the Tilton Rams triumphed over a talented Trinity team by the score of  290-280.

“We have done really good this season. And next season, hopefully, these guys can keep it going,” said Trinity’s captain Desmond Lee, a senior who participated in his last GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE game. “Keep the team up, and we can easily make it  again for sure.”

“They did an awesome job of just maintaining their composure, and when times got tough, they didn't back down from each other, it was really great to see, said Tilton’s coach Mackenzie.

“Having that lead kind of felt interesting, I got one wrong, and we still were able to keep it together as a team and still ended up getting the win,” added Tilton’s Niko Condodemetraky. “So that just shows how strong-willed and how positive a team we are, that we were able to bounce back from getting one wrong and end up hitting three in a row to win the game.”

Bedford High takes on Merrimack High in the second match of the semifinals of GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE airing on Thursday, May 8 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 hand 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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