Washington County Enterprise-Leader
ACE Teams Compete In Second Matches
PRAIRIE GROVE — Farmington and Prairie Grove improved their scores during the second round of matches for the 2014 Academic Competition in Education season.
Both teams finished in third place in their first matches for the season.
Farmington won its second match with 52 points. Fayetteville scored 34 points and Siloam Springs scored 23 points.
Prairie Grove once again finished in third place but earned more points and points are what counts because the finalists are based on points accumulated over the entire season.
Lifeway Christian won the match with 44 points. Gravette was second with 39 points and Prairie Grove ended up with 35 points, compared to 24 points in its first match in January.
“We did better yesterday than we did the first match, which is always a good sign,” said ACE coach Dustin Seaton.
The team is gearing up for its final match of the season with a unique strategy, he said.
The team has calculated it needs to score about 50 points to qualify for the finals on March 17 at Prairie Grove High School. Seaton said the group is going to meet to “rally the troops.”
He noted it would be disappointing to be the host school for the ACE finals and not be eligible to compete.
“Many of our ACE students are seniors and have lots of things on their minds,” Seaton wrote by email. “We are hoping to send our seniors out in style competing for a bid for the ACE finals, but it ultimately depends on them. We want ACE to be student-driven because the internal motivation to learn and succeed is a life lesson we hope our students get out of participating in the program.”
Farmington improved from a score of 39 in the first match to 52 in the second round.
Clayton Williams, ACE coach, said he thought the team’s focus and preparation were much better in Prairie Grove.
An ACE match is divided into halves, with one group of students competing in the first half and another group answering questions the second half. Williams said side two did better in the first half and side one carried the team in the second match.
“We still have not played a complete match yet and that is both exciting and scary that if we can put together a complete match we could be a great team. That is what it takes to win ACE. You have to have a well-rounded team that plays well on both sides,” Williams said.
ACE is a regional competition that involves 10 high schools in northwest Arkansas. The schools accumulate points during the season and the seven with the highest number of points advance to the semi-finals and finals. The number one team automatically advances to the final match. The other six compete against each other in the semi-finals to determine which two teams make it to the championship game.