Waterford High School clinches 10th consecutive SLC Academic Bowl
The Swinging ’60s, the Roaring ’20s, the Flying ’40s were all great decades in American history. Locally, Waterford’s Academic Team recently made its own mark in the annals of time by extending its dominance of the Southern Lakes Conference to the magic number 10.
On Feb. 10, 20 WUHS students donned their team shirts emblazoned with this year’s motto: “Great D-9-asties of the World,” and then turned in a performance that lived up to the lofty name.
Carrying conference titles dating back to 2011 brought with it a little swagger.
Undaunted by the pressure of potentially ending this long-standing streak, the Academic Team, coached by teacher Tina Backhaus, extended its reign, taking a 10 consecutive conference title with 872 points and dominating its nearest competitors, Lake Geneva Badger (783 points) and Union Grove (771 points).
Every year the eight conference schools send their best and brightest to vie for the title of Southern Lakes Academic Bowl Conference Champion, hosted this year by Waterford Union High School.
Students compete in the four core academic areas – English, science, math, and social studies – with each subject further broken down into four specific categories. In the individual round of competition, Waterford students scored first in social studies and English; second in science and math.
The team maintained its lead in the oral round of competition during which students collaboratively answered questions in English, math, science, social studies, and current events.
New this year to the oral round of competition was a leaderboard so that teams could see in real time how they ranked against other competitors.
The leaderboard provided “a really great way to get the crowd involved,” Waterford’s Dean of Students Jack Musha said. “It made me feel anticipation to see if my team got the question right. It seemed a much more modern way than the old way, and it was very interactive with the crowd, which is what I enjoyed the most.”
Following the oral competition, results were tallied and awards given to the top students in each category and the overall winning school. Of the 16 individual categories, Waterford crowned seven champions: Ava Lennartz, Geometry (co-champ); Logan Baker, Algebra II; Molly Witzeling, Biology; Aiden Brink, U.S. History; Joseph Cramer, Geography; Abigail Stultz, World Literature; and Sophia Schoenfeld, English Potpourri.
Notably, two of the freshmen and all four of the juniors on the team clinched championships in their respective categories. Waterford also currently holds a three-year streak in Biology and a nine-year streak in English Potpourri.
Cramer, a junior who was one question shy of a perfect score in Geography, said, “I could have had a hundred (percent) if I didn’t mess up on the scantron… When I transferred my answer to the scantron, I transferred the wrong answer.”
The teams 19 other members included freshmen Anna Bonack, Aiden Brink, Mikayla Datka, Ava Lennartz; sophomores Josh Beyer, Carson Gaylord, Abigail Stultz, Olivia Tuska; juniors Logan Baker, Joseph Cramer, Sophia Schoenfeld, Molly Witzeling; and seniors Alyssa Cornell, Quinton Gordon, Makenzie Hemmer, Quentin Jehn, Hannah Jones, Ryann Mullins, Ali Pope, and Jarid Stott.
Even though veterans accounted for half of the team, no one takes the competition lightly. Students prepare extensively for the event.
New Superintendent Lucas Francois was proud to see the winning tradition established under his predecessor, Keith Brandstetter, continue.
“It was an exciting atmosphere for students in the area, and I was proud of our Waterford team,” Francois said.
-
-
-
-
-