Centerpoint seniors in quiz bowl finals
AMITY — The Centerpoint High School senior high quiz bowl team will return to the 3A finals on Saturday after besting a familiar foe in the state tournament.
Centerpoint will face Haas Hall Academy Saturday morning at the Arkansas Educational Television Network studios,
350 S. Donaghey Ave., in Conway in the 3A state finals. All seven state finals will be livestreamed online and broadcast on AETN, Resort Channel 2 and Channel 250 in HD.
The matches will begin at
9 a.m. The 3A match is scheduled to be the third match of the day after the 4A between Highland and Huntsville and the
5A final between Harrison and Nettleton. The last match of the morning is the 6A final between Russellville and Benton.
The public is welcome be part of the audience. Seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Spectators will be admitted through the main entrance on Beatrice Powell Street and are advised to arrive no later than 8:30 a.m.
“I have a knot in my stomach, but this is an amazing group of students,” said Joanna Sutton, Centerpoint’s quiz bowl coach. “I tell them I just get to go along for the ride.”
Sutton teaches oral communications and is the library media specialist for Centerpoint’s intermediate school. She coaches the quiz bowl team with math and science teacher Melinda Frizzell.
Senior team captain Samantha Burnett helped lead the team to its second trip to the state finals in three years and
the school’s eighth final overall. Zane Pedron is the only other senior on the team.
Juniors on the team are Jared Alesi, Mark Francis, Keaton Goocher, Mason Thomas and Justin Woodall. The team’s sophomores are Hannah Diggs and Linnie Hampton.
Grace Burnett is the only freshman on the team. Freshman Jonathan Daniel is the team manager.
Burnett started on the team that lost 370-240 to Episcopal Collegiate in the 2015 3A final. It was the third-straight state championship for Episcopal. Burnett will graduate summa cum laude next month with a gradepoint average greater than 4.0 and ranks second in her class out of more than 60 seniors.
Centerpoint finished third in the state in 2016 behind only Haas Hall and Episcopal. Haas Hall ended Episcopal’s run with a
300-270 win in the final. Members of Centerpoint’s team helped the school win the quiz bowl competition at the
74th annual Arkansas Senior Beta Convention in January at the Hot Springs Convention Center. The win qualified them to compete in the National Senior Beta Convention will follow June 29 through July 2 at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort in Orlando, Fla.
They later won first place in the regional competition, hosted March 11 at Centerpoint, for the third year in a row. Centerpoint was seeded third, again behind Episcopal and Haas Hall, after the morning rounds at the state tournament April 1 at Maumelle Middle School. The Knights defeated Riverside, Elkins, Melbourne and Cedar Ridge to set up another showdown with Episcopal.
“In the last game we played at the tournament, we played Episcopal and we beat them by
5 points, which is half of a tossup question,” Burnett said. “It was shaky. We came up from third place in the final game.” Episcopal beat Fountain Lake the 2014 and 2013 finals by in scores of 325-190 and 360-220, respectively. Centerpoint topped Episcopal 360-160 in 2012. Arkansas Baptist fell in the 2011 final 415-130 to Episcopal.
The Arkansas Governor’s Quiz Bowl Association adjusted the rules this season to allow teams to play with five players instead of four, but AETN has yet to redesign its set and teams will play with four students each in the finals.
Sutton said she plans to start with Burnett, Alesi, Thomas and Woodall on Saturday. Pedron started throughout the season, but will be the team’s first alternate in the finals. Sutton said she rotates the rest of the team members evenly based on their strengths.
“I think they can beat any opponent on any given day,” Sutton said. “And I think they can do that on Saturday.”
Sutton praised the support the team receives from the Centerpoint faculty, staff, administration and community.
“We have a very supportive principal (Nic Mounts),” Sutton said. “He allows us to go to multiple tournaments to compete throughout the year and he is very understanding of the practice schedule. It really is a group effort.”