The Academic Team secured a place at states for the first time in team history on May 2. To make it to the state competition, they had to fight a little harder after placing third at regionals and narrowly missing the automatic advancement that the top two teams received.

“That final round against Olentangy Orange, that was ridiculously tight the entire time (…), and it was really intense and awesome to be a part of,” Academic Team member senior Henry Miles said.

The last round was nerve-wracking for the team, it came down to the very last question, and in a heartbreaking moment they ended up getting beaten to the punch and missed the automatic advancement by that one question.

“However, the four top scoring teams across Ohio who had not already advanced got wild card bids, and we were the top scoring team,” team captain senior Owen White said.

After a great showing, the team earned their spot at states and competed on May 2 for the first time in Granville history. Because of conflicts however, seniors Purin Songrug, Grace Emery and Miles were unable to make it to the state competition. Junior Kevin Gu subbed in for the missing members.

“Kevin Gu is a very smart man,” Miles said. “His ACT score is insane. He’ll do a great job.”

The competition was broken up into multiple rounds consisting of different question rounds and question categories. These categories ranged all the way from mythology to life science, and the team was more than ready to take on these challenges after a year of triumph.

“Over the year, the team has grown to be a lot more useful as a unit,” Miles said.

Headed into the competition, the team was placed impressively well.

“We are seeded 13th out of over 700 Ohio teams,” White said.

They ended up exceeding expectations and actually placed 11th in the state at the competition.

“At the beginning of the year, states was completely out of the picture,” Miles said. “I’m really proud of this team. We showed up and balled out.”