Middle School Academic Challenge Ends Successful Season

By the time the 2011-2012 school year had ended the Hawken Middle School Academic Challenge team had impressive record. They had come in first place in two regional tournaments, tied for first place in the state tournament and come in 17^th out of 72 top-ranking teams in the nation in the NAQT invitational tournament in Chicago.

In June, the team was invited to a second national tournament, this one sponsored by QUnlimited. Only four top schools in the nation competed in both national tournaments – Hawken was the only school from Ohio to do so.

Teams from across the nation competed at three sites (New Orleans, Washington, D.C., and Chicago) for this final tournament. There were winners at all three sites, and then the statistics were compiled from all three sites to determine national ranking. Hawken participated at the Chicago tournament the week after school let out. Early on, our team showed ourselves to be one of the strongest teams there – as in our second round we scored the highest score of any team in any round at any of the three sites – an exceptionally high 535 points. All in all, Hawken played hard against the toughest teams in the nation but in the end, was knocked out of the playoffs on the final two questions of our last round by the team that was ranked #1 going into the playoffs. Despite the tough loss, Hawken can be proud of the team's 7^th place finish in Chicago, 10th place ranking in points for the nation, and a 19th place finish for the year from all teams in the nation.

Congratulations, Hawks, on another tremendous Academic Challenge season!  The Middle School Academic Challenge team is looking forward to the 2012-2013 school year – where their first competition on the year will be a regional tournament on October 27.