Published: March 01, 2007 12:41 am            

CMS academic team brings home a state championship

Athletics may bring in fans by the carloads, but one local junior high dominated academic and scholastic tournaments this season, and even brought home a state title.

Chisholm Middle School scholastic and academic teams competed in local and area competitions and dominated many of them.

Chisholm I academic team won district and area and brought home a state championship trophy this past weekend. The team was composed of Caleb Lareau, Scott Snodgrass, J.T. Lett, Travin Manues and Matthew Jantz.

“Simply stating that they won state doesn’t even come close to describing what the team endured to win it,” said Julie Lareau, scholastic team coach.

The team practiced weekly with coach Karen Smith, studying anything and everything. They challenged themselves to stretch their minds, and it paid off, sponsors said.

The academic team played seven different schools from across the state in its division. Each round consisted of 40 toss-up questions and 10 team questions. Students were buzzing in for nearly four hours while parents, grandparents and siblings cheered them on. Chisholm had the perfect combination of speed and knowledge it took to win state, sponsors said.

Chisholm II academic team also excelled by qualifying from its district and regional meets to compete at the area meet. They won three of the seven rounds against teams from Watonga, Hennessey, Fairview and Guymon.

Members are seventh-graders Cole Jasper, Nick Stowers, Justin Tom, Brian Worthen and Tyler Zander and sixth-graders Jacob Curtis, Tyler Downard, Camden Echard and Caleb Lang.

The scholastic team also excelled this season. CMS won overall sweepstakes trophies at Chamberlain Scholastic Meet in Fairview and Chisholm Invitational Scholastic Meet. Top students from surrounding schools competed in written exams in current events, humanities, language arts, math, science and social studies. The seventh-grade scholastic team won seventh-grade sweepstakes at three meets this year.

Chisholm students brought home 48 medals at the four meets they competed in this year. Students who won first-, second- and third-place medals at these events will compete at the state scholastic meet in El Reno April 14. Students who have qualified to compete are sixth-graders Tyler Downard, Camden Echard and Caleb Lang; seventh-graders Casey Hampton, Cole Jasper, Jara Lemmon, Scott Snodgrass, Nick Stowers, Justin Tom and Tyler Zander; and eighth-graders Sean Allen, Meghan Cox, Lonnie Ford, Matthew Jantz, Caleb Lareau and J.T. Lett.

Julie Lareau said she is pleased to announce three students have qualified to compete as Tournament of Champions Top Scholar. To earn that distinction, students must win medals in four different tests. Cole Jasper, Scott Snodgrass and Caleb Lareau have earned the opportunity to compete for the honor.

CMS Math Counts team recently competed in a Math Counts competition held at Cherokee Strip Conference Center. The students competed individually and as a team. The four-member team — Bryce Kvasnicka, Caleb Lareau, Jara Lemmon and Justin Tom — placed second overall and will travel to Tulsa to compete at the state Math Counts competition March 10.