Clinton High Academic Team Wins WPEC Large School Championship!
The Clinton High School Academic Team won the WPEC (Western Piedmont Educational Consortium) championship for Large Schools Tuesday night, having to play a second match in a “winner take all” one-game final. CHS earned a hard-fought victory over Emerald, 31-26, in the finals.
Clinton finished with a 3-1 record defeating Greenwood (41-14) and Laurens High (29-17) on Monday losing to (24-29) and then winning against Emerald High in the “winner takes it all" final match) on Tuesday. Clinton displayed a keen resiliency in the second match and earned a hard-fought victory over a very game Emerald team.
Academic Bowl (or Quiz Bowl) is a fast-paced, quick-response back-and-forth competition. Much like football, there are four quarters…The first two quarters are 20 consultation questions with one team being the odd questions and the other team getting the even ones. If an answer is incorrect, the other team can answer and get the point. The last two quarters are buzz-in (Think Jeopardy.) with both teams vying for the 25-quick response questions.
There is a 10-second time for all questions except math computation (which gets thirty seconds). Matches usually last a little less than an hour.
In the Greenwood game, Clinton got off to a good start in the Consultation Round 1 with an end-of-quarter score of 8-5 in CHS’s favor. The team members during this round were Sam Gearheart, Chandler Dailey, Ada Tiller, and Anna Litzenberger. The second round was even more explosive for the Devils with an 11-3 CHS advantage. Team members during this round were Jackie Alcudia, Julieta Garcia, Lindsey Pysell, and Gus Lanford.
Moving into the buzzer rounds, CHS had Marlee Williamson, Matthew King, Sam Hunt, and Ada Tiller in for the third quarter. The team extended the lead with a 10-3 effort pushing the Red Devil lead even further.
In the final quarter, the Red Devils played Jacob King, Lindsey Pysell, Sam Gearheart, and Jule Darden. This combination surged to a final quarter score of 12 for Clinton and 3 for Greenwood. The final score in the first match of the evening was Clinton--41; Greenwood--14.
The next match was against our county rival, Laurens District 55 High School. Following the same order of players as the match with Greenwood, Clinton High had scores of 5-4 (in the 1st quarter), 7-2 (in the 2nd quarter), 7-4 (in the 3rd), and 10-7 (in the 4th) for a total score of Clinton 29 to Laurens 17. So ended the first day of competitions.
On Tuesday, December 5, Emerald fought its way through the loser’s bracket to be the last team to face the undefeated Red Devils. The Clinton A-team started a little different lineup for this match. In the first quarter, Clinton played Sam Gearheart, Ada Tiller, Anna Litzenberger, and Lindsey Pysell. The pair put Clinton out in front 7-5.
In the second quarter, Clinton experienced its first deficit, trailing 3-7. Halfway through the match, Clinton was behind 10-12. Unfortunately, things did not improve in the 3rd quarter. The Emerald lead extended by 9 with a 4-13 round. Recognizing the need to pull out a miracle, Clinton came on strong in the 4th quarter, outscoring Emerald 10-4; however, the deficit was too deep to fully recover and Clinton lost, 24- 29, setting up the rubber match between the same two teams.
In the Championship match, Clinton once again switched lineups and started Sam Gearheart, Ada Tiller, Anna Litzenberger, and Gus Lanford. The combination must have worked since the Red Devils surged to a 9-5 first-quarter lead. In the second quarter, Clinton switched the lineup and kept Anna Litzenberger in but added Lindsey Pysell, Jacob King, and Jules Darder to take an 8-6 lead and a halftime score of Clinton 17-11.
Emerald battled back in the 3rd quarter against Clinton’s team--Marlee Williamson, Matthew King, Sam Hunt, and Gus Lanford--to take a 6-9 lead and cut the Clinton lead to 23- 20.
With the championship still in the balance, Coach Terri O’Shields put Lindsey Pysell, Jacob King, Jules Darden, and Sam Gearheart to take the team on its shoulders and the hope for the WPEC championship in its grasp. After a back-and-forth affair, Clinton emerged victorious in the 4th quarter, 8-6, and a final score of Clinton 31, Emerald 26. Upset averted, the Clinton A-Team successfully retained its title as WPEC Large School Champion…a title it has held since 2019 (except the COVID year 2020 when there was no tournament).
The Clinton High School Academic Team will represent the WPEC (Western Piedmont Education Consortium) in the state competition at Winthrop University on March 21, 2024. Congratulations to the Large School champions. They will compete in March at Winthrop for the state championship.
Best wishes and great job to the players: Jackie Alcudia, 10th grade, Jules Darden, 12th grade, Lauyn Ficklin, 9th grade, Julieta Garcia, 12th grade, Sam Gearheart, 11th grade, Sam Hunt, 9th grade, Jacob King, 10th grade, Matthew King, 10th grade, Gus Lanford, 12th grade, Anna Litzenberger, 12th grade, Lindsey Pysell, 12th grade, Ada Tiller, 10th grade, and Marlee Williamson, 10th grade. Not shown are Avery Barnes, 10th grade, and Chandler Dailey, 12th grade.
Coach Terri O’Shields told the students after the match, “I am incredibly proud of each of you. You are getting better and better and working as a team. There are no superstars on this team but when the team is playing together as it can and occasionally does, you are collectively demonstrating a superstar collective effort. I am so proud of your ability to come back from adversity and take the game in hand when it could have gone either way. I am so very proud of everyone’s effort to be a little better each day.”
Congratulations to the CHS Academic Team, the 2023 WPEC Champions. You make Clinton proud.
