MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Morgantown High School has won the state Department Academic Showdown for the fourth year in a row.
The win came in Friday’s finale at the state Culture Center in Charleston. Twelve teams advanced to the championship after winning regional rounds held on college campuses. Morgantown High took on Huntington High in Friday’s final round.
MHS team captain Lucille Dahle had high praise for her team and noted the school has won four of the five years the competition has been in existence.
“It was rough this year; there were a lot of really good teams competing, and I’m really proud that our team came out on top,” Dahle said. “I’m also proud of Huntington, Hurricane, Jefferson, Bridgeport and Weir as well.”
Dahle said they went head-to-head with Huntington earlier in the day Friday and only won by a single point.
“We were up against Huntington High, and it was our second time playing them,” Dahle said. “We played them earlier in the day and beat them by only one point, so we were pretty scared going into this because they are smart people.”
Three members of the MHS team are going off to college after this year but Dahle said they have a group of underclassmen who are prepared to make a fifth straight win next year.
“This year we have two juniors, Dashiell Harms and myself, and three of our other team members are seniors: Ethan Liu, Zadie Behnke, and Ava Jones, and they’re headed off to college, so we’re losing them unfortunately.”
She said their academic advisors and coaches have been extremely helpful and have given them the tools they’ve needed to be repeating champions.
“I’m proud of our coaches Hunter Stape and Alex Godfrey for helping us get to this point and helping us do this,” Dahle said. “Their help has been absolutely invaluable.”