The team of students from Northern Valley High School at Old Tappan has advanced to the second round in the quiz show The Challenge, to be aired April 12.
The Challenge is a Jeopardy-style academic game show, which tests students’ knowledge of various subject areas including math, science, history, art and literature.
Old Tappan will take on Monmouth Academy for the match, which will air on News 12 at 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, April 12 and the same times Sunday, April 13.
The Old Tappan students, Nicholas Annichiarico, Lisa Jaris, Avinash Nagaraja, Steven Sloane and alternate Jonathan Pearson, have advanced to this round after beating Madison High School, which was aired in late January.
This season, more than 735 students representing 147 tri-state area high schools are participating in The Challenge. Teams from Westchester/Hudson Valley, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut are all represented.
The ultimate goal is to be one of the regional champions who will face off next spring for the title of Tri-State Challenge Champion. This carries with it a $500 reward for each student participating in the championship, a $2,500 award for the teams that participate and an ultimate award of $10,000 for the championship winner.
Old Tappan’s team advisor, Brian Hanson Harding said the team was "very excited to compete in the second round."
"They brought a lot of energy to it," said Harding, who added that the students prepared for it by meeting twice weekly to quiz one another and watch the show.
"They took turns researching and studying and presenting the information to each other. They were very positive and having fun with it," he said.
Harding has already prepared a list of students to apply for next year’s show. Should the school be chosen to compete, Harding said he would have to "take the nine chosen students and whittle it down to five."
E-mail: wilde@northjersey.com or call 201-894-6706
