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What a thrilling finish to the weekend! The Academic Bowl team flew to Little Rock, Arkansas to take part in the GPSD Triathlon, hosted by the Arkansas School for the Deaf. Historically, ever since we have started participating in the GPSD AB portion of the triathlon (the other two are ASL and Oratorical competitions) in 2009, we have never really done well as a team at that tournament, despite doing well in other tournaments such as the regionals or national competition. This year, the team was determined to show everyone they could do well—and boy, did they, by bringing home the championship!
How the tournament works- we have to play all participating schools and the schools with the best 4 records go to either the championship or 3rd/4thplace matches.
We played 7 schools over the course of two mornings and set up a nice 7-win streak, which qualified us for the championship match. Our opponent was the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf (MSAD) Trojans. Over the course of the tournament, the team developed confidence and a very positive dynamic, which was sorely tested during the championship. We led by several points early in the 1st round, but MSAD did not give up and eventually took over the lead, which left us chasing after them in the 2ndround. At the start of the 3rd round, we were down by 2 points. We all were on pins and needles until the category of the 3rd round was announced—mathematics! Traditionally, this is the toughest category in an Academic Bowl competition and not always the most welcome sight when it comes up, but we were thrilled because our team is good at math, especially with the addition of a player from the winning team at the RIT Math Competition last year. The team went into the 3rd round with renewed confidence, even after the questions were revealed—the team had to name different math formulas instead of solving problems! It was truly one of the toughest 3rdrounds we have ever seen, and our team was able to come out on top, winning 43-30 over MSAD. It was a great game and kudos to MSAD for not giving up and performing well.
All of the players made valuable contributions over the course of the tournament and this victory could not have happened without working together as a team.
NMSD is very proud of the team for bringing home the school’s first GPSD Academic Bowl championship! We look forward to the upcoming Roadrunner Classic tournament in December, and beyond that, the West Regional taking place in February 2020.