Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Cards Win ACE Championship
FARMINGTON — Farmington High School’s Academic Competition in Education team added a fifth championship trophy to its list of awards last week.
The team won the 2018 championship match held Feb. 21 at Farmington Performing Arts Center, scoring a total of 44 points to defeat Bentonville (24) and Prairie Grove (16).
All three top schools came away rewarded for their efforts. Farmington was awarded a trophy and $2,000 in cash to be distributed among team members. Bentonville as second place winner received $1,500 and Prairie Grove received $1,000.
Farmington won its first ACE
championship in 2004 and has been one of the top ACE schools in Northwest Arkansas for many years. Bentonville also has been a contender every year, winning multiple championships, and Prairie Grove’s program continues to succeed.
Clayton Williams, Farmington ACE coach, said this year’s team had six seniors, one junior and three sophomores. Of the 10 players, seven were new to the team.
“They’ve worked extremely hard,” Williams said after the final match. “They have a character about them that they are not going to let anything get them down.”
Even if the team had lost the championship, Williams said he believed their character would have prevailed but fortunately, he noted, they did not have to deal with that.
“They came out and took care of business,” he said.
Farmington came into the final matches as the number one seed and an automatic bye to the championship game.
The day started with two semi-final matches. Bentonville, seeded second, won its match against Lifeway Christian and Siloam Springs. Prairie Grove, seeded third for the season, won the second semi-final match against Gravette and Bentonville West.
The match opened in darkness, similar to the beginning of an Arkansas Razorback basketball game. A spotlight shined on each team as captains introduced members of their teams.
Farmington prevailed from the beginning of the championship game. ACE games have two halves. At the end of the first half, the score was Farmington 19, Bentonville 13 and Prairie Grove 6. Farmington continued to pull ahead during the second half.
Cody Parrish, a senior in his second year with ACE, said the team wanted to start strong. Last year, Farmington also was the No. 1 seed and the championship came down to the last question. Bentonville answered that question correctly and won the 2017 championship.
“This year we had to get it done,” Parrish said. “We didn’t want it to come down to the last question.”
Parrish, who also plays football, basketball and baseball, said he tried out for the ACE team as a way to be a part of a team and better himself.
“I have the responsibility to do better every match,” Parrish said, adding the difference between being a member of the ACE team and a member of an athletic team is that he has to study on his own.
“There’s a lot more individual work,” Parrish said.
Katie Jansson is one of the new players this year. She said she’s enjoyed being a part of a team with other students who are smart and are interested in learning new information.
“They’ve worked extremely hard. They have a character about them that they are not going to let anything get them down.”
Clayton Williams Farmington ACE coach