John Wood Community College and WGEM will launch the 25th season of The Academic Challenge Quiz Bowl Tournament on Saturday, January 31, with the competition’s first match between Macomb High School and Illini West High School airing at 6:00 p.m. on WGEM NBC. The match will be rebroadcast on Sunday, February 1, at 5:30 p.m. on WGEM FOX.
The WGEM Academic Challenge features 16 schools from the tri-state region competing in 15 matches. Seven contests will be broadcast, including the championship match. Matches will initially air on Saturday on WGEM NBC, then will be rebroadcast the following Sunday on WGEM FOX. The tournament is scheduled to air through March 15. The broadcast schedule for the other quarterfinal matches includes: February 7 and 8, Hannibal High School against Quincy Notre Dame High School; February 14 and 15, Clark County High School versus Unity High School; and February 21 and 22 Central Lee High School against Quincy High School.
The host of this year’s tournament is WGEM Meteorologist Brian Inman. The series is co-sponsored by John Wood Community College and WGEM-TV.
Members of the Macomb team include: Grant Reed, Lucas Williams, Gabrielle Torrance, Zach Sutton, Kathryn Hays and Will Bordowitz. The team is coached by Suellyn Rieckelman.
Members of the Illini West team include: Ellen Gambrell, Zoey Hartrick, Kayla Kaminski, Wyatt Newberry, William Phillips, Grant Roth and Sarah Sparrow. The team is coached by Connie Flesner and Kim Johnson.
Judges for the 2015 challenge include JWCC faculty members Melissa Knapp, mathematics assistant professor; Mark Moore, professor of natural sciences; and Dr. Randall Egdorf, department chair and assistant professor of social and behavior sciences. The series is under the direction of Shawn Dickerman, creative services manager at WGEM.
Schools participating include:
ILLINOIS
Bushnell-Prairie City High School
Central High School (Camp Point)
Illini West High School
Macomb High School
Payson Seymour High School
Quincy Notre Dame High School
Quincy Senior High School
Unity High School (Mendon)
West Prairie High School (Colchester-Sciota
Northwestern)
IOWA
Central Lee High School (Donnellson)
MISSOURI
Clark County R-1 High School (Kahoka)
Clopton High School Pike Co. R-III (Eolia)
Hannibal High School
Knox County R-1 High School (Edina)
North Shelby High School (Shelbyville)
Scotland County R-1 High School (Memphis)