Students battle it out in Academic Bowl

HARDYSTON — In what may be considered as the 28th Annual Sussex County Middle School Academic Bowl, the team representing Hardyston Township took home the Bowl.

Sussex County had a broad representation of teams who participated in this year’s event: Sparta, Franklin, Immaculate Conception Regional School, Green Township, Saint Joseph’s School, Sussex-Wantage, Newton, Frankford Township, Hopatcong, Vernon Township and Hardyston Township.

Coordinated by Patricia Rosendale of Hardyston Middle School, the event, held May 17 at Hardyston Township Middle School in Hardyston saw 17 teams participate.

Each year, the Academic Bowl tests the county’s middle school students' reflexes, teamwork skills and sheer knowledge in a television game show format, using questions and buzz-in devices. Each round drew from questions on subjects that ranged from general history to mathematics, science, literature and language arts, the performing arts, sports and current events.

Retired educators volunteered to read the questions for each round.

The top two scores achieved during the day determined the final round, with the third and fourth high scores determining a consolation round. The four teams who had the top scores from the preliminary rounds met that evening to determine the final placements.

Jeff Collarruso moderated the evening rounds and read the questions. Robert Demeter, Vice-Prinicipal and Patricia Rosendale coordinated the evening’s match play. The teams from Newton and Vernon went head-to-head for the consolations round, with Vernon edging out Newton in the final few questions. The Vernon team took home the third place trophy and Newton took home fourth. Following the consolation round, the two top scoring teams from Hardyston and Sparta took the stage, where Hardyston won in the final round.

The first place team took home the perpetual silver bowl trophy, along with both a team trophy and individual trophies for each team member. The second place team received a team trophy and medals for the members for their accomplishment. The third and fourth place teams each received a team trophy and ribbons indicating their placements. All students received certificates of participation.

Members of the first place team from Hardyston:

Katie Bertoa
Molly Cheevers
Jeff Dekmar

Richard Hamler
Clint Roe
Advisor – Mrs. Patricia Rosendale

Members of the second place team from Sparta:

Elias Frieling
Eileen Huhn
Ben Lee

A.J. Viola
Erin Walsh
Members of the third place team from Vernon:

Sam Dawes
John Donovan
Victoria Gonzales

Frank Incarnato
Ethan Kimbrel
Advisor – Augie Meyer

Members of the fourth place team from Newton:

Cameron Osborne
Kyle Penny
Sean Tracy

Brandon Zambrano