Salem High Students Win 2018 Granite State Challenge

SALEM, N.H. - A team of Salem High School students is moving on to the High School Quiz Show Invitational at WGBH in Boston after beating Plymouth Area Regional High School in the championship of the Granite State Challenge.

Plymouth maintained a lead throughout the game, but Salem pulled ahead in the final two minutes of the game, dominating the final questions and preventing a comeback from Plymouth. The final score was 460 to 400.

The Salem Blue Devils were represented by captain Tony Consentino, Aidan Gallo, Jonathan Tarness, and Ricky Jeffreys, with alternates Alexis Ahern and Oba Oseghali. The Blue Devils were coached by Bernie Campbell. Playing for the Plymouth Bobcats were captain Richard Lyons, Rhys Harris, Konner Bird, and Martin Runquist and alternates Austin Sanders and Clayton Titus. The Bobcats were coached by Jay Fogarty and Troy Harris.

According to a release, the win was emotional for coach Salem coach Bernie Campbell, who won the Granite State Challenge championship as a student for Salem in 2002.

"I've got three seniors on this team who brought Salem Quiz Bowl back from the dead," he said. "I'm really proud of them."

The seniors, Tony Consentino, Aidan Gallo and Jonathan Tarness are friends who decided their freshman year that participating in Granite State Challenge's Super Sunday qualifying round would be fun. They arrived at that Super Sunday without a coach, took the 100-question test and qualified on their own - a challenging feat that many team's with coaches don't achieve.

Upon hearing that their students qualified, Salem High School enlisted Granite State Challenge veteran Campbell to coach the team.

Salem will move on to compete in the first-ever High School Quiz Show Invitational at WGBH in Boston against the winners of Maine Public’s High School Quiz Show: Maine. The winner of that game will face the winner of the semifinal game between Massachusetts and Rhode Island in a battle to decide the High School Quiz Show Invitational champion.

Hosted by Jim Jeannotte, Granite State Challenge features New Hampshire's top high school academic quiz teams 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.

Courtesy Photo / Granite State Challenge