Waccamaw Middle School Wins Junior Academic Bowl

By Aliana Ramos, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Jan. 25–GEORGETOWN — Years of watching “Jeopardy!” paid off Wednesday for Waccamaw Middle School eighth-grader Garrett Beinbrink.

Garrett’s school won Georgetown County School District’s Junior Academic Bowl. Thirty-two students from the district’s four middle schools competed in the competition Wednesday.

“It feels good,” Garrett said after the school’s final-round win over last year’s champions, Rosemary Middle School.

“We just knew we had to bring our A-game,” said Garrett, 14, a team captain who competed in the Academic Bowl for the first time this year. He said he’s been watching “Jeopardy!” since about third-grade.

Each school had an eight-member team that competed in two-round games, answering questions about social studies, language arts, history, science and math.

Today, the district’s high school students will compete in the Senior Academic Bowl beginning at 4 p.m. at the J.B. Beck Administration Building in Georgetown.

The bowl has been going on for more than 15 years, said Celeste Pringle, superintendent for curriculum for Georgetown County.

The middle school students who competed Wednesday were selected for the teams by their respective schools, either by a tryout, school competition or test scores.

Students used a buzzer to signal when they were ready to answer some of the questions.

They answered questions such as: Which is the only state in the United States with a single syllable name? What is the past participle of the word rise?

And at times it all came down to the buzzer.

“When you’re on stage, sometimes you know the answer and they buzz before you,” said Candace Pressley, an eighth-grader at Carvers Bay Middle School. Candace, captain for the team, led her team to a close victory over Georgetown Middle School with a score of 13-12 after the first game. Carvers Bay lost to Rosemary Middle School in the next round.

Although Candace’s team didn’t win the championship, she didn’t walk away empty-handed. Candace was one of six students recognized for having answered the most questions correctly during the tournament.

Doug Altman of Rosemary Middle School answered 21 questions correctly, Bradley Pierce of Rosemary Middle School answered 20, Ben Nelson of Waccamaw Middle School answered 20, Candace answered 19 questions correctly, Garrett answered 11 and Clayton Greis of Waccamaw Middle School answered 10 questions correctly.

“I think all kids should be encouraged to try out,” said Julie Beinbrink, Garrett’s mother.

“I think it’s great. I’m proud of all of them.

“It’s amazing what they know. Some of the [questions] everyone in the room seemed to know the answer; with others you could see the other adults in the room going, where did they come up with this?” Julie Beinbrink said.

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Winners of the Georgetown County Junior Academic Bowl

Waccamaw Middle School Students

Elizabeth Baxley

Garrett Beinbrink

Patrick Gregg

Clayton Greis

Ben Nelson

Brock Shehan

Colleen Taylor

Erin Wilson

Coaches

Judith Buzzell

Debbie Gouldin

Contact ALIANA RAMOS at 357-9520 aramos@thesunnews.com [mailto:aramos@thesunnews.com].

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C.

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