Fort Smith junior high team wins national quiz bowl title, places second team in top 10
by June 19, 2017 11:26 am 2,061 views
The winning gold team from Chaffin Junior High School in Fort Smith: (from left) Tran Nguyen, Noah Risley, Vivian Apple, Haris Rana, Mahdir Anower, Seth Geoates, Lucas Teoh, and Amy Markham, Chaffin Junior High Quiz Bowl sponsor.
A quiz bowl team from Fort Smith Chaffin Junior High has captured the Junior National Academic Championship in the Middle School and Junior High Division.
The school sent three teams — Gold, Green, and White, with Gold taking home the top prize and Gold and White finishing the tournament with only one loss each.
The tournament was held during the months of May and June from three locations — Washington, D.C., New Orleans, and Chicago. The Chaffin teams competed at the D.C. hub from June 2-4. Gold was coached by Amy Markham; Green, by Logan Hopes; and White, by Autumn and Mark Minnick. Combined, the trio won 18 games of tournament play.
Seven teams, including Chaffin’s Gold and White, qualified for the playoffs alongside two teams from Nebraska, two from New Jersey, and one from Pennsylvania. On the final day, Chaffin Gold and Chaffin White won the two semifinal games, setting up an intraschool showdown for the D.C. final. Chaffin White entered the playoffs as the only undefeated team, but Chaffin Gold won the day by a score of 320-235 and finished the tournament with the highest points per game average.
Champions from other locations were Atlanta Paideia B Team (New Orleans) and Next Generation School A from Champaign, Ill. (Chicago). The winners from each location are considered for the title of National Champion. Teams were first separated by number of losses, with Next Generation and Paideia B finishing with two losses and Chaffin Gold finishing with one. Chaffin also outscored the two schools in points per game average with 1,950 to Paideia’s 1800 and Next Generation’s 1,880.
“I am so proud of these amazing students and so thankful to the sponsors, teachers, and parents that helped us get to this amazing end,” said Markham, who is also the Chaffin Quiz Bowl sponsor.
The school also won the top individual prize with Gold Team member Noah Risley earning the D.C. MVP honor for highest number of points scored. Chaffin Gold Team members are captain Mahdir Anower, Risley, Haris Rana, Vivian Apple, Lucas Teoh, Seth Geoates, and Tran Nguyen. Chaffin White team members are captain Kenneth Clardy, Ashton Bailey, Gabe Davis, Jackson Wollscheid, Sam Hannson, Jack Minnick, and Myriam Rodas.
Questions Unlimited has presented the tournament for 35 years at the high school level, with the Middle School/Junior High Division running for the last 10.
Chaffin Gold joins with only nine other schools in earning the National Champion distinction. However, the school is not the only one of those 10 from Arkansas. In 2014, Fayetteville’s Woodland Junior High School took home the top prize. An Arkansas school has never won the High School Division.