A group of Thomas County Central High School students put their academic acumen to the test in a recent competition.
These students took part in the annual Andrew College Academic Competition Wednesday, Feb. 7. Several placed in event categories (see box).
Senior Matthew Edmonds placed first in his division of the music category. He competed as a vocalist and sang “O Mistress Mine,” words by William Shakespeare and music by Rodger Quilter.
Edmonds calls the competition a great experience. He says it made a big mental impact on him and taught him much because of the great musicians and judges who participated.
“When I heard I won, I was very confident that I did a very great job, and I was very ecstatic that the judges thought so, too,” Edmonds says. “Truly, this competition has changed my life and will make me work even harder as I continue to compete to win even more competitions.”
The school’s quiz bowl team earned second place in its division.
“For quiz bowl, each team had six members seated at an individual table in the gym,” TCCHS team member Anna James explains. “Each team had a college person from Andrew College who took score. There were four rounds of five questions. There were five categories of questions: math, science, social studies, fine arts and humanities. Our team had 30 seconds to answer each question, and we got the majority of them correct.”
Freshman Danielle Sauls received second place in her science division. She competed against other ninth graders from various schools.
“Students were presented with a 100 question test containing questions related to different topics in science such as physics, biology and chemistry,” Sauls describes. “We had 50 minutes to complete this multiple choice test. During the test, I felt a little intimidated because I was surrounded by so many older and more experienced kids. However, the questions did not seem too difficult so I did have some confidence in myself. Getting second place was a surprise, though. I'm glad and shocked I did that well.”
TCCHS Andrew College Academic Competition Winners
First Place
Kate Weaver ~ art
Matthew Edmonds ~ music
Second Place
Abby Allensworth ~ math
Ian Small ~ math
Emily Owens ~ math
Bret Hendricks ~ math
Danielle Sauls ~ science
Joshua Caleb Stephens ~ science
Sierra Stephens ~ science
Jason Weeks ~ social studies
Bret Hendricks, C'lee Kornegay, Jason Weeks, Anna James, Ian Small and Kaleb Ward ~ quiz bowl