ACHS academic team earns top 10 finish at state

The Adair County High School academic team earned a top 10 spot at the Governor’s Cup State Championship recently.

The academic team had five of the individual top placements at the event, earning them a top 10 finish overall.

The future problem solving team placed second, earning them a spot in the FPS international championship for the seventh year in a row. The FPS team members are Emmalee Baker, Kyle Castaneda, Sarah McQuaide and Amber Turner.

Senior Heather Jackson placed third in language arts, which is the first time an ACHS student has broken into the top 10 of that particular event. Jackson was both a district and regional champion entering into the even and had high hopes of being the first to break the top 10.

“It is such an honor to represent Adair County’s academic team,” Jackson said. “I don’t know of any other team that can take someone who doesn’t know the difference between Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Samuel L. Jackson, and—over the course of four years—give them the means and opportunities to place in the Top 10 in a statewide competition. No matter where you go, nobody does it quite like Adair.”

Jackson also paired up with teammate Rebecca Montgomery to earn state championships in the scenario writing event. This accomplishment earned both students the right to advance to international competition as well. Jackson finished first in the senior division while Montgomery placed first in the grades 7-9 division. At the ceremony, both students were commended as having qualified for internationals three out of the last four years in their respective divisions.

“Like most seasons, we lost a big chunk of our core unit last year, and the work of these students paid off once again,” said coach Brett Reliford. “The results say a lot, but the immeasurable part of what we do is difficult to put into words or to be explained by numbers and rankings. This improvement from August until now for many and the improvement after two and three previous years of believing in the program from others is mind-blowing. This season ranks as high as any other in showing everyone across the state just what work ethic and the refusal to be overlooked will do for a team. I think a lot of people overlooked us at the beginning of this year because of having such an inexperienced team, but a lot of students went through a lot of time and effort to overcome that. I couldn’t be more excited for this team and the end result at state.”

The international championship will take place in June at the University of Indiana.