On Saturday, January 15, Leesville Road High School defeated Jordan and West Johnston in the WRAL Brain Game quarterfinals. With the win, Leesville earned a trip to the Brain Game head-to-head semifinal match.
Leesville had been previously blown out by Jordan High School in the first match of the season. However, after receiving a wild card birth, Leesville had a chance to make up for their loss.
Leesville displayed its improvements early on in the game. In the first match, Jordan had already racked up 160 more points than Leesville did by the end of the second round, but this time, Jordan only led by 60 points.
Much like the first match, the teams nearly matched each other round for round. By the end of round six, the score was Leesville 220, Jordan 290 and West Johnston 50. However, in round 7: rocket science, a topic where Leesville normally excels, Jordan came out and capitalized on Leesville’s mistakes. Jordan built a 130 point lead after Leesville incorrectly answered a few questions.
With two rounds remaining, Leesville needed a big rally to come back. Nathan Sanders, sophomore, however, was “still pretty confident.”
“We studied pretty hard on the topics.”
The last two rounds featured questions related to Cuba, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago as well as trivia about national monuments in America. Leesville scored a total of 180 points while Jordan racked up only 20 points.
The final score was Leesville 400, Jordan 370, West Johnston 90.
“We are pretty good,” said Meghana Shamsunder, junior. “We have a great team, and each of us has particular strengths that work well together.”
Sanders agrees with Shamsunder. “I think the team is fairly well balanced, except on arts and crafts. None of us are very artsy craftsy.”
Now Leesville will play in the Brain Game semifinals in March. The team plans to continue following their regular practice routines.
“I guess the same way,” said Sanders. “Random pop trivia with Mrs. Jones and then some research in a few weeks.”
I think math competitions are amazing.
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