The Nashua South Purple Panthers Edge Out the Fall Mountain Wildcats on Granite State Challenge

Durham, NH (February 13, 2026) —Can you name the British spy who’s also an international man of mystery? This was one of just a few questions that went unanswered during the 44th season opener of GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE on New Hampshire PBS, where two-time GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE champions, the Purple Panthers of Nashua South, outpaced the Fall Mountain Wildcats in a competitive opening game with a final score of 345 to 220. 

Fall Mountain and Nashua South, along with teams from 34 other New Hampshire schools, took a qualifying test in November 2025 to secure one of the 16 spots in the season. Four additional teams competed in two wildcard games in December 2025 to secure a spot in the first round of games. The Wildcats of Fall Mountain Regional High defeated the Lin-Wood Lumberjacks in the first wildcard game to secure their spot. 

Fall Mountain is led by captain Ben Weightman, a twelfth-grader. The team also includes twelfth-graders Lennon Doescher and Josh Town competing alongside eleventh-grader Rylie Porter, with eleventh-graders Keegan White and Nate Sudsbury serving as team alternates. The Wildcats are coached by Social Studies teacher Nick Belsky. Fall Mountain enrolls 490 students from Langdon, Acworth, Alstead, Charlestown and Walpole.

The Purple Panthers are captained by twelfth-grader Henry Long and include twelfth-graders Eric Picanco and Thanasi Miris, as well as tenth-grader Charlie Long. Team alternates are twelfth-grader Jerry Primo and tenth-grader Lexie Ross. The team is coached by Social Studies teacher Lex Duval and English teacher Kelli Thornhill-Telerski. The Purple Panthers were Granite State Challenge champions in 2016 and 2017.

The game began with a competitive Round One. Nashua’s Thanasi Miris, who, along with his brothers, won the Northeast AHEPA Hellenic History Tournament in November, was in his element answering the first question of the season about the Olympic Games in Ancient Greece.

Fall Mountain quickly issued a rejoinder with Josh Town buzzing in to answer another sports-based question, but this time about Michael Jordan and the film Space Jam. As with many GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE pop culture questions, this topic came from an era that may feel relatively recent, but actually pre-dates the show’s contestants.

Eric Picanco of Nashua got on the board early with a pop culture question as well, this time about Mario Bros, one of multiple arts and pop culture questions he’d buzz in on. Fall Mountain’s Lennon Doescher proved similarly adept with modern music questions throughout the game, buzzing in on questions about superstars Billie Eilish and Bad Bunny.

While neither team dominated decisively during Round One, Nashua came out to a slight lead, despite the best efforts of Fall Mountain player Rylie Porter, who narrowed the gap as she buzzed in with two consecutive correct answers just before the round’s end. 

Fall Mountain captain Ben Weightman was also proud of his team’s performance during the three-strikes-and-you’re-out format of Round Two, generally considered the most strategically difficult part of the game. “I think we only got 10 points in our Wild Card game; we got 50 this time,” he noted. 

In Round Three, a quick-fire 60-second round that included participation from team alternates, Fall Mountain gained another 50 points with help from their alternates Keegan White and Nate Sudsbury.

Nashua Captain Henry Long admitted his team was caught by surprise after choosing the subject “Fiddle Dee Dee.”

“I thought it was gonna be two words that start with D or words that had two D's next to each other,” he laughed. Instead, the team got a series of questions revolving around the word “fiddle.” The team still managed to pull ahead, getting eight out of ten answers, with assistance from alternates Jerry Primo and Lexie Ross. 

Nashua ended the third round 65 points ahead and continued to dominate throughout Round Four, securing their victory. 10th-grader Charlie Long was particularly quick on the buzzer, answering questions that ranged from geography to biology.

Nashua’s captain, Henry Long—who is also Charlie Long’s older brother—was thrilled with his team’s early victory. “I think we played exactly how we were hoping to and expecting to. It's really nice to just win a game because we've been unlucky in the past few years.”

Fall Mountain’s Weightman and coach Nick Belsky both felt that the crux of the game came down to Nashua’s ability to buzz in quickly. “Nashua had some good buzzer training and definitely beat us to a couple of questions that our kids knew,” said Belsky. 

Weightman was philosophical about the team’s loss. “I’m glad we put up a fight,” he said, noting Nashua’s relative size and experience. “It’s always a good feeling to compete.”

Lex Duval, Nashua South coach, summed up the collegial spirit of GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE. “It was a great game. Fall Mountain performed great.  We're just as proud of them as we are of our own students.”

For those wondering, the British spy/International Man of Mystery that neither team could name was not James Bond or Benedict Arnold, but Austin Powers, the creation of comedian Mike Myers that seemed omnipresent in the early 2000s.

Hosted by Bow High School teacher and former GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE coach (Bedford High), contestant (Belmont High), and GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE crew member, Jon Cannon, GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE features some of New Hampshire's brightest high school students 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.

Catch the next game of GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE on Thursday, February 19th 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 Safety Insurance and NEA New Hampshire.

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