County victory goes to South Point Quiz Bowl team

South Point High School’s Quiz Bowl team won the county Ironmaster Tournament on Thursday, the latest accomplishment in a remarkable year for the group.

The team, consisting of Brennan Carter, E.J. Daniels, Rachel Decker, Jake Helton, Taylor Mazzone, Nick Wood and Caleb Pennington, went undefeated in the double elimination high school event, which took place at Ohio University Southern in Ironton.

The team also received an award for being regular season champions, going undefeated in individual school-to-school match-ups throughout the academic year.

Coming in second was St. Joseph High School, who defeated Chesapeake to face South Point in the final round, moderated by Tim Hayes, the former Quiz Bowl coach for Fairland High.

St. Joseph’s coach, Sheri Arrington, said she was proud of her team, comprised of Daniel Hodges, Isaac Walker, Brad Rist, Jonah Lewis, Joey Bush and Nicholas Ward.

“We have a strong team,” Arrington said. “Especially those two — Brad and Daniel. I knew, with them, we were strong, and they practiced a lot.”

South Point’s coach, Allen Perry, said the team went in hoping to win.

“You never know,” he said. “How the questions will fall and play to the strengths of each team.”

He expressed his pride in the team’s two major accomplishments for the year.

“I’m so proud of them,” he said. “To see them work so hard and make it so far. Two of them have been doing it for four years, and I’m happy to see them win this in their final year.”

South Point is now eligible to move on to the regional tournament, organized by the Ohio Academic Competition and set for May 6, Julie Walter, student services coordinator for the Lawrence County Educational Services Center, who organizes the county tournament, along with OUS, said.

Perry said his team plans to take part in that event.

South Point Superintendent Mark Christian offered his congratulations to the team.

“They’re really great kids,” Christian said. “We’re really proud of them.”

Christian said that two members of the team, Helton and Pennington, have been longtime friends, going through school together and taking accelerated classes.

“Jake has been accepted to Princeton and Caleb has been accepted to Penn,” Christian said. “All of them are top-notch and extremely intelligent and Mr. Perry does a great job coaching them.”

Each coach of the teams participating was asked to name one player to receive an award for outstanding effort for the year.

Pennington took the honor at South Point, while Hodges was named by St. Joseph. Other winners included Evan Goodall for Chesapeake, John Davis for Dawson-Bryant, Sam Harris for Fairland, Dylan Hermann-Holt for Ironton, Derek Balmer for Rock Hill and Derik Brace for Symmes Valley.