Duncan A-Team lands first place in Morenci Knowledge Bowl

Raymundo Frasquillo Photo/Gila Herald: Duncan’s A-Team finished with a meet-high 72 points for first place. Members of the Becky (Bell) Booth-coached group are, front, from left, senior Brooklyn Kempton, junior Kaitlyn Lunt, and junior Lynnie Neilson; back, from left, junior Lucas Basteen, senior Wesley Conyer, junior Vincent Wright, and junior Lorenzo Harris.

By Raymundo Frasquillo

MORENCI – Seven Duncan High School students walked away from Morenci’s 30th Knowledge Bowl with the first-place awards Feb. 27. Compilation of the final oral round question scores listed the team total with a meet-high 72 points.

Raymundo Frasquillo Photo/Gila Herald: Duncan senior Wesley Conley decides on the correct answer.

The Southern Greenlee County schools’ A-Team had three-round totals of 40, 16, and 16 points. Members included seniors Wesley Conyer and Brooklyn Kempton, along with juniors Lucas Basteen, Lorenzo Harris, Kaitlyn Lunt, Lynnie Neilson, and Vincent Wright, coached by Becky (Bell) Booth.

Runner-up Thatcher had 64 (34-17-13) points, earned by Jaeden Carpenter, Chandler Curtis, Braden Rapier, Kienna Van Shaar, and Thomas Ziccareli, coached by Hank Hoeft.

Third place Pima with 50 (26-11-13) points, included Mason Barney, Kylie Cluff, Rylee Pritchard, and Dean Richards, coached by Laurie Moody.

Saint David was fourth 42 (22-10-10), Willcox fifth 41 (27-8-6), Safford sixth 37 (20-10-7), Tombstone seventh 32 (22-5-5), Bisbee eighth 28 (21-4-3), Morenci ninth 20 (14-5-1), and Elfrida Valley Union 10th with 18 (12-3-3).

The B-Team placements were Bisbee first with 52 (26-12-14) points, followed by Morenci 45 (26-13-6), Thatcher 43 (21-16-6), Pima 37 (22-9-6), Tombstone 32 (23-7-2), Saint David 31 (18-7-6), Willcox 27 (16-7-4), Duncan 26 (16-5-5), and Safford 20 (12-5-3).

Morenci’s B-Team included seniors Donovan Aughenbaugh, Gabriel Baca, Rachel Barnett, Anthony Chanez, Tyra Ethelbah, and Emily Lundeen, and junior Keanna Cortez, coached by Renee Still.

Thatcher included Taylor Ellett, Jaden Farley, Samuel Faucett, Felicity Halverson, and Porter Johnson; Pima had Tarah Barney, Logan Conlon, Corey Farr, Michael Guy, Casey Matthews, and Kayla Walker; and Safford has Mikayla Evans, Nathan Swan, Duncan Walker, and Jennifer Weissen, coached by Chip Cheney.

Raymundo Frasquillo Photo/Gila Herald: Morenci juniors Dominick Gonzales, left, and Domonik Vigil confer on an answer to a verbal question.

Other school coaches were Heidi Kirchmeyer (Bisbee), Chrecentia Nduwimana (Saint David), Augusta Lucas (Tombstone), Alisha Hamberger (Valley Union), and Ty White (Willcox).

The meet featured questions from all academic disciplines, including Art, English, History, Geography, Mathematics, Music, and Science, divided into three rounds, a written portion of 60 questions with a 60-minute time limit, plus two oral portions with a written response due in 30 seconds from the first reading.

Raymundo Frasquillo Photo/Gila Herald: Morenci’s 30th Knowledge Bowl first and second place team and individual awards were lined up for viewing.

The judges were Teresa Andazola, Tyler Attaway, Wendy Banks, Alicia Barnett, Roxanne Boling, Rosalie Christensen, Marilou Cortez, Jeremy Ford, Danille Keen, Natalie Lawrence, Sandi Leavitt, Richard Lunt, Krista Mahan, Tom Powers, Jennifer Reed, Joy Tiefel, Ted Tiefel Jr., and Kara Wagley.

Officials included reader David Gonzales, scorekeeper Ted Tiefel, and timer Amy Cieriello.