A team from the school handily made it to the second round of play last Sunday, knocking out Sharon High School in the process. Players Chris Anderson (a veteran of last year’s team), Siobhan McDonough, Ian MacLean, and Connor Schmidt will face Brookline High School on April 8 in the tournament’s quarter-finals.
“It was a good comeback,’’ McDonough, the team’s only female player (and the one with the nervous, neon green Converse-clad feet), said amid a celebrating crowd at the WGBH studios after the win.
A test of smarts, determination, and quick synapses, the Emmy Award-winning competition pits 16 teams from public schools across the state against one another in a bracketed elimination tournament with fast-paced games in the format of “Jeopardy!’’
Hosted by TV and radio personality Billy Costa, the competition premiered Feb. 12 on WGBH, and the final two teams will spar for state supremacy when the championship round airs May 20. Along the way, contenders will be pared down in qualifying matches, then quarterfinals, and finally semifinals in shows airing at 6:30 p.m. every Sunday.
Hamilton-Wenham is one of four north-of-Boston schools in the running this year: Beverly will go up against Acton-Boxborough Regional this evening, and Rockport and Somerville will have a skirmish of smarts on March 4.
Brookline was the first team to advance, beating Seekonk High School on Jan. 12.
The other teams in contention include Lincoln-Sudbury Regional, Lexington, Arlington, Belmont, Weston, Shrewsbury, Milton, and Hingham. All 16 were culled from an initial 90 challengers in a “Super Sunday’’ event last fall.
For Sharon, it was a revenge match against an ominous rival: Hamilton-Wenham booted the Sharon team from the semifinals last year before ultimately going on to win the championship against Mt. Greylock Regional High School (and, in the process, impressing everyone with their knowledge of the word “synecdoche’’).
And both teams were prepared for the fierce rematch, taped at the WGBH studios in Brighton on Jan. 28.
