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Two more academic titles puts GHS on top
WEST LAFAYETTE -- With two more academic championships added Saturday, Greencastle High School has now more state titles in the Indiana Academic Super Bowl competition than any other school in the state.
Going into Saturday’s competition at Purdue University, Greencastle and West Lafayette were tied with 27 overall state titles. GHS captured the Class 3 Math and Fine Art championships on Saturday, while West Lafayette took the Class 2 Math title. But West Lafayette’s only other state finalist, its Interdisciplinary team, finished third. Those results give Greencastle a 29-28 edge in all-time state titles, since winning for the first time in 1990.
Besides Class 3 state championships in Mathematics and Fine Arts, GHS also earned state runner-up honors in Science during the 2019 Indiana Academic Super Bowl state finals.
Science teams from North Putnam and Cloverdale finished fifth and sixth, respectively, among the seven state finalists.
The GHS Math team, which went into Saturday’s event top-seeded in Class 3, got off to a fast start in defending its 2018 title and held on, answering 23 questions correctly out of 25 to outlast Bremen High School.
“We answered the first eight questions correctly along with four other schools so we were tied for the lead through the first eight questions,” GHS Math coach Gayle Hansen told the Banner Graphic. “We were back tied for number of questions answered correctly after 10 questions (although technically in second based on the third tie-breaker which is how many questions correctly answered in a row).”
After 14 questions Greencastle was tied for the lead with two other schools, and after 17 questions was knotted up with Bremen.
“We took the lead after question 21 and kept the one-point lead the rest of the way,” Hansen said.
Members of the state champion GHS Math Team are captain Ben Wilkerson, Connor Crary, Casey Crary and Michael White.
“I am super excited for the Greencastle Math Team to repeat as Academic Super Bowl champs,” Hansen continued. “It is fun and rewarding to work with these students, some of whom I worked with when they were students at Deer Meadow or Ridpath primary schools.
“All of the team have a love for mathematics which shows by how hard they work. Their Math Bowl coaches at Tzouanakis Intermediate and Greencastle Middle School, Mr. (Brad) Phillips and Mrs. (Jane) Roberson, did a terrific job preparing them for the success they are achieving now.”
The GHS Fine Arts Team finished as Class 3 co-champions with North Decatur High School as Greencastle earned its first Fine Arts title since 1991.
Coached by Robin Johnson and Pamalee Smith, the GHS Fine Arts team is composed of Vivian Savage, Sarah Heithaus, Mary Katherine Asbell and Anastasia Wood.
The Greencastle Fine Arts team emerged as co-champion with North Decatur High School, answering 18 questions correctly out of 25 and sharing the tie-breakers as well. GHS Fine Arts was down one point after 24 questions, and answered the last question correctly to move into a tie for first.
“The Fine Arts Team covers two completely separate disciplines, art and music,” co-coach Pamalee Smith explained. “It is difficult to find students competent in both areas and/or willing to learn about both. We were very fortunate to have four accomplished and interested ladies this year. Our one senior and team captain, Vivian Savage, was our most proficient musician and all four girls are very smart, artistic and interested in art.
“It is interesting to note that our score was only one point behind the highest ending scores of all the schools in all four classes. It shows you the level of difficulty in this year’s topic, ‘The Fertile Crescent.’ And there were no listening examples this year due to the subject matter. It would be all conjecture, since we have no actual instruments or recordings.”
In science, Greencastle earned runner-up honors with 17 questions answered correctly. North Putnam was fifth with 13 points. Cloverdale was sixth with 11 points.
GHS got behind early and trailed by three points with five questions to go but Greencastle finished strongly, answering the last five questions correctly.
Champion Knightstown missed questions 21 and 22 but got 23-25 correct. Greencastle would have won by a tie-breaker had Knightstown missed one of those last three questions.
“We scored a 17 while the champs (Knightstown) had an 18,” GHS Science coach Kingma said. “We had a slow start, getting four of the first five wrong. However, I am really pleased with the way they kept hanging in there, getting the next seven correct and then the last six. This allowed us to jump over a couple of teams as the third- and fourth-place teams only got two and one question of the last five right, respectively.
“We had no seniors on stage, so hopefully we’ll be able to come back strong next year,” Kingma added
The second-place GHS Science Team is captained by Ben Wilkerson with Bailey Williams, Connor Crary, Casey Crary, Noah Schimpf, Jack Howard and Iris Mackenzie as members.
The North Putnam Science Team, meanwhile, captured fifth place in Class 3. The North Putnam Science Team, coached by Annette Maier, includes Wesley Jacobs, Matthew Trotter, Kyle Young and Emily Fink.
Also a state finalist, the sixth-place Cloverdale Science Team, coached by Kathryn Hoffmann, is composed of Deelaynee Lauer, Chris Benitez and Katie Selig.