NORTHERN VALLEY — With cheers of support, five Northern Valley High School at Old Tappan students recently competed on Cablevision’s academic quiz show, "The Challenge."

Nicholas Annichiarico, Lisa Jaris, Avinash Nagaraja, Steven Sloane and alternate Jonathan Pearson beat Madison High School with aired broadcasts Jan. 26 and Jan. 27.

The students were questioned in the subjects of math, science, history, arts and literature.

Student advisor Brian Hanson Harding said the high school’s Challenge Club had prepared the students well with its weekly meetings.

"We watch the weekly show and try to answer the questions. Each kid presents a topic to the rest," said Harding, who said British novels were discussed last week and next week’s topic will be American novels or world history.

Since the students won, they will compete in the second round Feb. 27 against Monmouth Academy, which Harding called a "strong team."

Since Monmouth Academy competed recently on another televised show, the Old Tappan students have a sense of their competition.

"We watched the show Wednesday and we saw they’re really good. They’re fast and answered a lot of questions and we tried to answer along with them," Harding said. If Old Tappan wins that round they will compete in the third round later that day.

Due to the success of this show, Harding has begun recruiting juniors for next year’s show in case Old Tappan is selected to compete again. The school will be notified in September if they have been chosen and at that point Harding will already have a team ready for competition.

The support of the students’ peers was impressive, said Harding. He said approximately 40 students from the school came to watch and they made signs and wore their school colors, their excitement reverberating through the studio.

"They were so loud the moderator kept commenting about it. They had a lot of spirit. I’ve never seen anything like that for something academic."

Competitor Steven Sloane said hearing the support was the "coolest part" of competing. He is looking forward to the upcoming round, saying the team’s outcome will depend on what questions are asked.

"A lot of it has to do with what questions come up on that day and what particular strengths we have," he said, adding he thinks his team has a good chance of winning.

E-mail: wilde@northjersey.com or call 201-894-6706