FOR RELEASE: MAY 3, 2022
Contact: Jim Mehrling 440-463-2557
Headline: KEYSTONE DEFEATS AVON, COMPLETES SET OF SCHOLASTIC GAMES ACADEMIC SEMIFINALISTS
Lorain County’s high school quiz show, the Scholastic Games, now in its 32nd year on WEOL radio (AM930 and FM 100.3), broadcast the last of this year’s quarterfinals Monday. It was a highly competitive affair with the teams alternating higher scores, resulting in a 350 to 330 victory for LaGrange’s Keystone High School over Avon with the outcome in question up to the final question. Keystone now joins Olmsted Falls, Amherst Steele, and defending champion Lake Ridge Academy as a semifinalist in the county-wide academic playoffs. Broadcasts continue weekly, Mondays 6 to 7 p.m., through the championship on May 23rd.
The Keystone team consisted of Landon Horner, Tristan Magel , and team captain Noah Weaver, who won his second “Standout Scholar Award,” which is presented each week by judges to the student determined to have contributed the most to his or her team. Each of these honors includes a $50 award. Weaver’s first such award was achieved in a “wildcard” competition earlier this year among high scoring losing teams. Keystone is the only team that lost its first match to make it to this year’s semifinals, making it the true “Cinderella team” of 2022.
The team from Avon consisted of Sai Rangarajan, Nicholas Stamatis, and team captain Matthew Downing, who won a Standout award in a competition earlier this year. The first round of questions is called the “Initial Round” for two reasons. Besides being first, all of the answers start with the same letter, in this case “C,” ranging from Copernicus to Calamity Jane. Keystone took a ten point lead following that round, and increased it in the Current Events round, which ended with an 80 to 50 score.
The competition switches from random assignment of questions to the use of buzzers in the third round, providing an advantage to a quicker team. In this round of questions, with a theme of Ohio history, Keystone further enhanced its lead to a 120 to 80 point advantage, but Avon dramatically changed the outlook in the next round.
Round four has tremendous scoring potential because it includes high-score clues for each answer. A correct answer to a first clue in a series can yield fifty points, with diminishing point values for up to four additional clues, the last of which is ten points. Avon identified the nation of Bangladesh from the first clue, adding 50 points and giving the team its first lead of the game. The second answer came after the third clue, but it was another Avon score, adding another 30 points. Clues about the development of the computer “mouse” provided 40 points to the Keystone team, but Avon followed up with two more scores, 40 points for naming the state of Kansas and 50 for identifying the first clue about abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass. The round ended with a 250 to 160 lead for Avon.
The outcome came down to the final round and its more than nine minutes of tossup and bonus questions. The variety of academic topics brought additional points to both teams. Keystone outscored Avon, but it took most of the round for the team to cover the deficit from the preceding round. It was only at the last pair of tossup questions that the team managed to achieve a tie, and then a win to advance the school to the semifinals.
Keystone will face Olmsted Falls in the semifinal to be broadcast next week, on Monday, May 9th. Weekly broadcasts will end with the program’s 32nd annual County Academic Championship the week before Memorial Day. Remaining playoffs are as follows, subject to further modification if there are conflicts with live sports coverage.
5/9—Semifinal #1: Keystone vs. Lake Ridge Academy; 5/16—Semifinal #2: Amherst Steele vs. Olmsted Falls; 5/23 –Championship
Following broadcast WEOL archives the programs on its website (http://weol.northcoastnow.com/2022-lorain-county-scholastic-games/ ). Additional archives are available at http://standoutscholars.com . Among the twelve different schools that have won Scholastic Games championships, Olmsted Falls (in 2011, 12, 13, 14, and 18) and Elyria High School (in 1992, 93, 94, 97, and 2000), have won the most. Amherst Steele won in 1991 and 2015) and the remaining semifinalist team, Lake Ridge Academy, won in 2021 and earlier championships in 2006 and 2010. Of this years other finalists Avon won four past championships (2009, 16, 17, 19), and Keystone one (in 2004). Other past champions not among finalists this year are Avon Lake (2001, 05, and 20), Admiral King (1995, 1998, now closed), Oberlin (1996), North Ridgeville (1999, 2002), Midview (2003) and Vermilion in (2007, 08).
The program has enjoyed long-term support from Nordson Corporation and various funds of the Community Foundation, this year including the Steve Boyza Fund, the Patsie C. Campana Sr. Fund, the Schaeffer Family Fund, The Stumphauzer, O’Toole, McLaughlin, McGlamery & Loughman Co. Fund, the “Touch the Future” Fund, the Al Hillegass Fund, the Ford MacArthur Endowment Fund and the Madeleyn Metzger Fund. Additional support is from the Nord Family Foundation and the Community West Foundation. The radio sponsors this year are EcoTree Services and the Elyria Public Library System, which has provided venue space for program sessions for several years.
Area colleges and universities participate by providing $1000 tuition credit awards for allocation by participating high schools. Participating for all or most of the program’s thirty-year history were Lorain County Community College, Oberlin College, Ursuline College, Ashland University, Heidelberg University, John Carroll University, with more recent additional awards from the University of Findlay, Lake Erie College, Tiffin University and Notre Dame College of Ohio.
The program’s host and producer, Jim Mehrling, is a veteran northeast Ohio broadcaster. After seven years as Chief Announcer at WEOL, he was Production Manager for, first, Cleveland’s WERE-AM and later at Cleveland’s WCLV-FM. He was recipient of a 2019 President’s Award from the Cleveland Association of Broadcasters. Again this year, most Scholastic Games programs are followed by a talk feature, “Dialogues in Education,” which presents education success stories with its host, award-winning journalist Bob Tayek. BROADCAST ON AM 930 – WEOL