On Saturday March 1, the Academic Team traveled to Jamestown High School in Williamsburg, Virginia to compete in the VHSL State Championships. The team consisted of seniors Nicholas Faulds, Paul Drumbl, Thomas Ayoun-Winder, junior Liam Stillwell, and sophomore Sammy Eastwood. Their coaches were Mr. Chirs McGrath and Dr. Patrick Bradley. They competed in several matches answering a variety of subjects such as math, science, history, and literature.
In the opening match at states, the Academic Team defeated Maggie Walker with a score of 230 while Maggie Walker scored 190. In the second round, the team won with a score of 245. Lastly in the third round the team won with a score of 315. They finished the day with a 3-0 score and scored 790 points.
The team had a great start to their season winning every match that they competed. Nicholas Faulds is a senior on the team. He reflects on his past season on the team.
“We had an extremely strong season this year, we really came out swinging and we were able to push all that momentum through to the state championship,” Faulds said.
Faulds then goes on to describe his experience at the competition and how their stress levels decreased throughout the day.
“It was a long day, we left at 6 so I had to get up at 5 in the morning. Three hours in the car is a lot of time for stress to build, there wasn’t much to do besides look at my phone or stress about the games. After we won the first game though, the stress started to gradually wind down. We definitely got more confident over the course of the day and it worked out well,” Faulds said.
Paul Drumbl is another senior on the team that went to States. He explains his experience and how it felt to win States.
“Going to states was an incredible time because we got to face some of our hardest competition and represent RCHS on the highest level. Winning a championship with this group was an awesome way to cap off my senior year and end my time competing with the team,” Drumbl said.
After a victorious regular season winning every match, the Academic Team went on to win districts and regions. Finishing as the VHSL state champions is the perfect way to end the 2024-2025 season.
