FAYETTEVILLE -- Prairie Grove High School's Academic Competition in Education team set a record at its match Jan. 15 against Bentonville and West Fork.
The team earned 51 points, its highest score in three years.
The high score was not enough to beat a strong Bentonville ACE team but coach Dustin Seaton was still pleased with the outcome. Prairie Grove almost doubled its score from its first match in December. Prairie Grove earned 26 points at that match, competing against Farmington and Greenland.
Bentonville won the Jan. 15 match, held at Fayetteville's performing arts center, with 68 points. West Fork, usually another strong ACE team, came in third behind Prairie Grove with 25 points.
The first match of the day featured Fayetteville, Farmington and Lifeway Christian competing against each other. Fayetteville won with 50 points. Farmington finished second with 46 points and Lifeway Christian came in third place with 43 points.
Drew Harris, Prairie Grove ACE captain, said the team made a few changes in strategy to improve over its first game of the season.
Harris said he also believed the team did better because of a mixture of what the students have learned in class and what they've studied on their own.
Seaton said team members watched Shakespeare movies on a Friday night and changed the way they studied for questions on current events and vocabulary. Seaton also made some changes relating to team members and their playing time.
Farmington improved its score from the first match to the second match by one point, from a total 45 points in December to 46 points in Fayetteville.
"We did better but we still have work to do," said Clayton Williams, Farmington ACE coach.
As an incentive, Williams had told his players he would buy lunch if they scored at least 50 points and beat Fayetteville. The students did not meet Williams' goal, though, so lunch was on their own.
All teams play three matches during a season. Farmington's final match will be Feb. 5 against Gravette and Shiloh Christian at Farmington. Prairie Grove's final games will be Feb. 12 against Lifeway and Gravette at Life Way Christian.
ACE is a competition that involves 10 high schools in northwest Arkansas. Schools accumulate points over the season and the seven teams with the most points advance to the final rounds. This year, the semi-final matches and championship match will be held Feb. 23 at Farmington High School's new performing arts center.
General News on 01/28/2015