This week on Granite State Challenge, the Cougars of ConVal Regional High School face off against the Tomahawks of Merrimack High School.

Only one team will advance.

Granite State Challenge starts now.

Major funding for the production of Granite State Challenge is provided by Unitil.

Additional funding provided by Bangor Savings Bank.

Safety insurance.

NEA New Hampshire, Aroma Joe's and viewers like you.

Thank you.

Get ready.

It's time for New Hampshire high schools to match wits in a high stakes scholastic showdown.

It's time for Granite State Challenge.

Here's your host, Jon Cannon.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Granite State Challenge.

We're about half way through our quarterfinal round.

Both these teams this week defeated their first round opponents.

Let's see who moves on to the semifinals.

First up, we'll introduce you to the team from ConVal Regional High School.

Hi, I'm Lukas, I'm a senior.

Hi I'm Ben.

I'm a junior.

Hi I'm Remy.

I'm a junior.

Hi, I'm Owen.

I'm a senior.

The alternates are Kyle and Brian.

And the coaches are social studies teachers.

Chris Hyder and Eric Bowman, and they're the Cougars of ConVal Regional High School.

And their opponents this week in this quarterfinal matchup is the team from Merrimack High School.

Hi I'm Erin.

I'm a senior.

Hi I'm Liam I'm a senior.

I'm Maeve.

I'm a senior.

Hi I'm Avis.

I'm a junior.

The alternates are Hikari, Bridget, and Lauren.

And the team is coached by chemistry teacher doctor Sarah Campbell and physics teacher Liz Dumais.

And they are the tomahawks of Merrimack High School.

All right.

Those introductions are out of the way.

But we do have one more.

Our very favorite judge back with us again on the Ann Cam is Ann Boulanger.

All right.

Teams introductions are out of the way.

Go ahead and grab those signaling devices as we get ready to play some Granite State challenge.

As you know, we play in four rounds.

Round 1 is 10 point toss up questions.

So ConVal and Merrimack.

Good luck.

Here we go.

You'll find springboards, platforms, pikes and tucks in this sport.

Liam of Merrimack.

Gymnastics.

Sorry.

No.

ConVal.

It is diving for that one.

Robin Hood and his merry men hang out in this woody area in Nottinghamshire.

Liam of Merrimack.

Sherwood Forest.

Correct.

This large waterway connects the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean.

Avis of Merrimack.

The Erie Canal.

Sorry.

No.

Remy of ConVal.

Saint Lawrence River.

Yes.

That's what we were looking for.

The design on the front side of the Pulitzer Prize medal of Benjamin Franklin was created by this Exeter, New Hampshire, native, also known for the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial.

Erin of Merrimack.

French.

Yes, Daniel Chester French.

This Greek goddess of love had a gruesome start.

She was born from the foam produced by the severed genitals of Uranus.

Thrown into the sea by his son, Cronus.

Avis of Merrimack.

Aphrodite.

Yes.

This English scientist's 1665 book Micrographia included illustrations of plants and animals as seen through the lens of a microscope.

He also discovered the law of elasticity, which is named after him and was also an architect.

He is sometimes referred to as England's Da Vinci.

Erin of Merrimack.

Leeuwenhoek?

Sorry.

No.

ConVal.

It was Robert Hooke.

Colombo is the capital of this island nation once known as Ceylon.

Erin of Merrimack.

Sri Lanka.

Correct.

Moorhens are medium sized marsh birds related to rails.

Moorhen was the winning word in the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Spell moorhen.

Liam of Merrimack.

M o o r e h e n. Sorry.

No.

ConVal.

Ben.

M o o r h e n. That is right.

All right, teams, our next question is our Unitil Power Question.

It's a 20 point toss up question coming to you on your monitors.

Take a look.

This author wrote Power is a word, the meaning of which we do not understand, in his novel War and Peace.

Liam of Merrimack.

Orwell.

Sorry.

No.

ConVal.

Lukas.

Tolstoy.

Yes.

This carnivorous plant is found in bogs in North and South Carolina.

Unsuspecting insects and spiders are caught by the plant when they step on trigger hairs that snaps the plant's leaves shut, trapping its prey.

Ben of ConVal.

Venus flytrap.

That is right.

In 1781, this became the first planet discovered using a telescope.

Erin of Merrimack.

Uranus?

Yes.

This country had a population control policy limiting families to only one child from 1979 until 2015.

Owen of ConVal.

China.

China is right.

This author wrote and illustrated the children's picture books Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen.

Maeve of Merrimack.

Sendak.

Yes.

Maurice Sendak is correct.

All right, teams, take a look at your monitors for the next clue.

This essayist, philosopher, and poet, sometimes referred to as The Sage of Concord, was a leading proponent of transcendentalism.

He met his first wife, Ellen Louisa Tucker, in Concord, New Hampshire, in 1827 when he was a visiting pastor.

Ben of ConVal.

Henry David Thoreau.

Sorry.

No.

Merrimack.

Liam.

Emerson.

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Yes.

In this game, your goal is to sink your opponent's boats.

Maeve of Merrimack.

Battleship.

Yes.

These powerful winds that sweep down from the deserts of Southern California helped drive the wildfires that devastated communities across the greater Los Angeles region in January of 2025.

Erin of Merrimack.

The Tradewinds.

Sorry.

No.

ConVal.

Those are the dry, dangerous Santa Anna winds.

Teams.

This could be a frozen man with two eyes made out of coal or a frozen dessert from Wendy's.

Ben of ConVal.

Frosty.

Yes.

This American rapper and friend of Martha Stewart was a torch bearer in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Lukas of ConVal.

Snoop Dogg.

Yes.

At 20,310 feet, this is the only mountain in North America that is over 20,000ft above sea level.

Owen of ConVal.

Mount Denali?

Yes.

Actor Angela Lansbury played many roles in her career on stage, in film and on TV.

You may know her for the role she played in this movie as Mrs. Potts, the enchanted teapot, house keeper.

Ben of ConVal.

Beauty and the Beast.

Yes.

Near, far, wherever you are this singer promised her heart would go on in a song written for the movie Titanic.

Erin of Merrimack.

Celine Dion.

Correct.

This part of a football field is ten yards long by 53 and a third yards wide.

Liam of Merrimack.

The end zone.

Yes.

The sayings and ideas of this Chinese politician, poet and philosopher are collected in the Analects.

Erin of Merrimack.

Confucius.

Yes.

All right.

We'll leave that next question there.

And wouldn't you know it?

After one round, we've got to close score by a score of 110 to ConVal with Merrimack in the lead.

All right, teams, we're going to put a break in the action right now as we take a moment just to get to know our players a little bit better.

And we're going to start with the team from ConVal Regional High School.

ConVal has 737 students from ten towns, Peterborough and nine other towns.

And their first round game they played against and defeated Nashua South.

And we're going to start down here with Owen.

And Owen you got to be part of a really cool international exchange trip recently.

Tell us about it.

So it was an exchange program between a school, the Akademisches Gymnasium in Salzburg, Austria.

So you got to go to, Salzburg.

Did, students from, that academy come to ConVal as well?

Yes.

The students from their academy came to visit us for two weeks in the fall, and then we went there for a week in the spring.

Oh, great.

And what really cool stuff did you see?

We went to Vienna.

We visited a Holocaust memorial in Germany.

And we got to kind of explore the city and the life of Salzburg, Austria.

It's a pretty place.

It is a very pretty place.

Hope to go back?

I do.

All right.

Fantastic.

Next up is Remy, an artists.

What's your preferred artistic medium?

I like to draw.

Okay.

What types of things do you like to draw?

I like to draw, like cityscapes, landscapes, maps, that kind of thing.

Okay, so you maybe you.

Did you go to Salzburg as well and draw some of those landscapes?

Maybe.

All right.

Very good.

You're thinking about maybe a career that you could leverage for your art.

Yeah, I was considering maybe doing architecture.

All right, so the cityscapes will come in handy there as well.

Excellent.

All right.

Next up is, Ben and if you tuned in to ConVal's first round game, you saw Ben's, impression of President Trump.

Not your only performance, though.

You've performed overseas.

I have, yeah.

So in 2023, my theater company, our theater, my theater troupe, Project Shakespeare.

We went to England, and we performed Hamlet there.

Yeah.

And, who were you in the performance?

I was Hamlet.

You were Hamlet.

Hamlet.

Okay.

How did the Brits feel about an American coming in to play Hamlet?

Well, we got some pretty, backhanded comments from them.

I think most people liked it, though, over there, but there were some people who came up to us, were like, you know, that was it's the great thing about Shakespeare is that the language is always so good.

We're like, well, thanks a lot for that one.

But yeah, but you do it again.

I would absolutely in a heartbeat.

Right.

What an experience.

Exactly.

All right.

Speaking of experiences, your favorite food is?

Buffalo chicken.

Okay, so we talked about this before the show.

Tell us about your first buffalo chicken experience.

So I've historically been a bit of a picky eater.

One time I went out to a restaurant with my family, and they ordered a appetizer of buffalo chicken.

And I was like, okay, well, I'll try it.

And I just took a bite and I was like.

Changed your life.

Changed my life.

Okay.

So everywhere you go now, is that the first thing you look for on a menu?

Basically.

All right, all right, so pizza, the wings, you have Do you have, like, a favorite buffalo item?

I prefer just tenders.

Just straight up buffalo chicken tenders.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't disagree at all.

I cosign on that take and I cosign on the team from ConVal Regional High School.

All right.

Their opponents this week are the team from Merrimack High School in the town of Merrimack, just about a thousand students.

And in their first round game, Merrimack defeated the team from Winnisquam High School.

And we'll start down here with Avis.

Also got, or is looking forward to a European trip.

Tell us about it.

Yeah, I'm going to Italy in late April and I'm absolutely pumped.

Is this part of a school trip or a family vacation?

It's a school trip.

It's not connected to a class or anything, but apparently it was just something that they offered, so I was, sign me up.

So if you're a student at Merrimack High School, you can sign up to go on this trip.

Where are going to go in Italy?

We're bouncing around a couple cities.

Definitely Rome, Venice, Vatican City.

The hits.

Yeah.

Excellent.

Well, you'll have a good time.

Eat some good food, see some good art, see some good history.

Very, very jealous here.

All right.

Maeve.

You were elected we'll say to a very special position.

Tell us.

I was my school's prom queen.

Okay, so you're your school's prom queen.

How how is prom queen at your school decided?

Because it's not the same everywhere.

So the candidates are chosen by the teachers, and then out of those candidates, the students vote.

So you were voted by your peers as the prom queen, which is.

That's pretty great when you're when your peers, do that.

Do you have any special responsibilities as prom queen?

I got a pretty sick sash.

Okay, excellent.

And as a senior, that's it.

So one shot and you got it.

Yeah.

Well done, well done.

All right, Liam is going to be heading on a trip this summer.

Tell us where you're going.

Me and my family are renting an RV, and we're going to head down to Yellowstone for 20 days across the country.

Okay, so a 20 day trip across the country, on the road, in an RV, you and your siblings.

How many siblings?

Four.

Four siblings.

So you're one of five in the RV.

Yes.

And you're headed to where?

To Yellowstone?

Yeah.

Anything you're looking forward to at Yellowstone or on the way?

I'm looking forward to going to see some rodeos on the way and seeing all the wildlife in Yellowstone, for sure.

Fantastic.

Well, be safe, all right?

Stay away from any of the hot springs.

Don't get burned.

All right.

Erin, three year captain tradition, you are the captain this year.

You were on the team last year.

And what is this tradition that you are carrying on?

The night before we come to our second round, we make cupcakes of the entire team with, like, their faces and names on them.

And then we set up the rest of the cupcakes as the whole Granite State Champs studio, including you, including the judges and everybody here.

Well, we're honored that we are, cupcakes in your in your cupcakes.

How how did she do?

She do a good job on the cupcakes?

Did great.

All right, so the team gives it the endorsement.

And this is the team from Merrimack High School.

All right teams.

Thank you for that.

We're going to go right into round two.

And round two is our three strikes and you're out round.

And the way this round works as you know, each team gets ten questions.

We go down the line player by player until all ten questions are asked or until three strikes and you're out.

Each team gets three passes.

So if you don't know the answer, you can pass to your teamate next to you.

And just as a reminder, something in the previous question will be the inspiration for the next question.

So we do this alphabetically, ConVal, that means we'll start with you and Lukas.

This is your question.

This Supreme Court judge, known by the initials RBG, fought for women's rights throughout her career.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Correct.

Ben.

Beat poet Allen Ginsberg was known for this poem, which was the subject of a 1957 obscenity trial.

Pass.

Remy, pass to you.

Pass.

Pass again to Owen.

Yeah.

Sorry.

It was Howl was the name of that poem.

We're going to come back to you, Lukas.

This beat poet known, best known for his 1957 book On the Road, grew up in a French-Canadian family in Lowell, Massachusetts, and spoke only French until he was six.

It was Jack Kerouac.

Ben.

Jack Nicholson, starred in the 1973 movie The Last Detail as a sailor who is charged with escorting a prisoner from Virginia to this now abandoned site in Kittery, Maine.

Pass.

All right.

Is that your last pass, Remy, the question goes to you.

Tough spread of questions.

It was the Portsmouth Naval Prison, and that is your third strike that ends the round.

All right, Merrimack, we turn our attention to you.

Same drill, same process.

We'll start with you, Erin, this is your question.

In the 1953 movie The Wild One, Johnny Strabler, the leader of the Black Rebels motorcycle club, when asked what he was rebelling against, responded, what have you got?

Johnny Strabler was played by this actor who would go on to play Vito Corleone.

Pass.

Liam your question.

Al Pacino.

Sorry, it's Marlon Brando.

Maeve, to you.

This US vice president and his family had a pet rabbit named Marlon Bundo that was named after Marlon Brando.

Pass.

Pass to Avis.

No answer.

It is Mike Pence was that vice president.

Erin, back to you.

In the nursery rhyme, Sing a Song of Six Pence, how many blackbirds are baked in a pie?

12.

Sorry, it is 24.

And that's your third strike.

And just like that, the round is over.

All right.

Not much movement in round two, but that's okay.

We're going to roll into round three.

Alternates.

I'd like to invite you to come on up and join your teams as we get ready for our 60 second round.

In the 60 second round, each team gets ten questions in a category.

You can work together and talk together as a team.

And because we have a tie score going into this round, we are going to go alphabetically.

So ConVal, that means you get to choose first from our three categories.

They are Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf, Hit a Brick Wall and Banned Books.

Lukas.

We'll say Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf.

Okay, Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf.

The answers to the following will include the word wolf or wolves.

Again, Lukas, I'll take your answer as the team answer.

60 seconds.

Start the clock.

He is a CNN anchor.

Dick Wolf.

No, not Dick Wolf.

Wolf Blitzer Wolf Blitzer.

Correct.

Song by Warren Zevon where Lon Chaney was seen walking with the Queen.

Werewolves of London.

Werewolves of London.

Correct.

Michael J.

Fox starred in this 1985.

Teen Wolf.

Yes.

This 20th century English woman wrote Orlando.

Virginia Woolf.

Yes, this Austrian chef's first restaurant, Spago, opened in Beverly Hills in 1982.

No answer.

Wolfgang Puck.

What you might say a friendly seeming person with bad intentions is.

A wolf in sheep's clothing.

Correct.

This 2013 film starred Leonardo DiCaprio.

Wolf of Wall Street.

Yes.

North Carolina State University is known by this group name.

Wolf pack.

Wolf pack.

Correct.

The poisonous plant monkshood is also known by this name.

Wolfsbane.

Correct.

This is one of the largest species of dog.

The wolf dog.

It is the Irish Wolfhound.

And that's the 10th question.

And we'll wait on the Ann Cam.

Eight out of ten on your 60 second round.

Nice job ConVal.

Merrimack.

We turn our attention to you.

Erin, you can talk to your team and choose from Hit a Brick Wall or Banned Books.

Hit a Brick Wall, please.

Hit a Brick Wall.

Okay.

The answers to the following will include the word or sound brick.

Okay.

So again, Erin, I'll take your answer as the team answer.

60 seconds.

Start the clock.

In this song by Pink Floyd, kids claim they don't need no education.

Brickyard.

It is Brick in the Wall.

This is a path Dorothy followed in Oz.

Yellow Brick Road.

Correct.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is called this.

The Brickyard.

Correct.

He directed the films 2001 A Space Odyssey and The Shining.

Stanley Kubrick.

Yes.

This could be a guide to scoring student work.

Rubric, rubric.

Correct.

Clothing is made of this.

Fabric.

Fabric?

Yes.

A physical store is called this.

Bric a brac?

It is is brick and mortar.

The Commodores sang this song in 1977 about a woman who is mighty, mighty.

Brick house.

Brick house.

Correct.

You might bake a pizza in one of these.

Brick oven.

Correct.

This is another name for decorative knickknacks.

Bric a brac, bric a brac.

That is the time for bric a brac.

And at the end of their, eight out of ten.

All right.

Great job teams.

Alternates, thank you so much.

You can go ahead and take your seats as we get ready for round four.

In round four we're going to pick back up with our toss up questions.

But we're going to be doubling the point value to 20 points.

And we'll be deducting 20 points for any incorrect responses.

And with a tie game going into round four, ConVal and Merrimack play smart.

Here we go.

The first question is a video question.

Go ahead and take a look at your monitors.

Hi, I'm Emily Spencer, Miss New Hampshire, and here's a question about New Hampshire for you.

In 2002, the US Supreme Court dismissed a case that sought to establish that this military facility was part of New Hampshire and not part of Maine.

Lukas of ConVal.

The US Naval Academy.

Sorry, no.

Merrimack.

They were fighting over the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

Teams, what punctuation mark would you use to join two independent clauses lacking a coordinating conjunction?

Erin of Merrimack.

A semicolon.

That's right.

Our next clue is another video clue.

This one comes to you from Rebecca Rule, host of New Hampshire PBS Our Hometown.

And author of New Hampshire Trivia.

Take a look.

This baseball team was known as the New Hampshire Primaries until a contest in 2003 came up with this new name.

Owen of ConVal.

The Fisher Cats.

That is right.

A math question for you.

You have pencil and paper if you want.

What is the area of a room that is 12ft by 15ft?

Lukas of Carnival.

180ft .

That is right.

Before they became the Isles of Shoals, this group of islands were called Smith Isles by this captain after he spotted them in 1614.

He may be better known for establishing the colony at Jamestown, Virginia, and being rescued by Pocahontas.

Liam of Merrimack.

John Smith.

Correct.

At one time, the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company was the largest textile manufacturing company in the world and employed over 17,000 people.

It went bankrupt in 1935 as textile manufacturing moved to southern states.

In what New Hampshire city was the company located.

Lukas of ConVal.

Manchester.

That's right.

Politicians often use this song by Bruce Springsteen in their campaigns, despite the fact the song is about the impact of the Vietnam War on a veteran and the economic decline of a U.S. town.

Ben of ConVal.

Born in the USA.

That is right.

Take a look at your monitors, folks, for the next question.

In North America, this circumpolar navigator breeds across Alaska and northern Canada south to northern British Columbia, the Hudson Bay, and along the Atlantic coast to Massachusetts.

It winters in Antarctica.

Erin of Merrimack.

The Arctic tern.

Correct.

This species of white whale is found in Arctic and subarctic regions, and is related to the narwhal.

A baby one was the subject of a hit song by Raffi in 1980.

Maeve of Merrimack.

Beluga.

Correct.

This could be a novel by Charles Dickens or the stage name of a magician and illusionist.

Erin of Merrimack.

David Copperfield.

That is right.

In 1747, a Scottish doctor, James Lind, while working for the British Navy, conducted what we would call a clinical trial today and discovered that citrus fruit could cure this disease.

Liam of Merrimack.

Scurvy.

That is right.

Skip the next question.

These neotropical birds are known for their large, colorful beaks and maybe their love of fruit loops.

Ben of ConVal.

Toucans.

Yes.

Before a recent invasion, this country was often referred to as the breadbasket of Europe due to its crop production.

Ben of ConVal.

Ukraine.

Yes.

This singer songwriter's first album, Stranger in the Alps, was released in 2017.

Avis of Merrimack.

Phoebe Bridgers.

Correct.

Actor Christina Ricci played this character in the 1991 film The Addams Family, and it came down to round four, but Merrimack will be moving on to the semifinals by a score of 330 to 290.

Great game Merrimack and ConVal.

Merrimack, congratulations.

We'll see you in a few weeks for your semifinal match.

ConVal, you had a great run coming from a wild card position all the way to here.

We had fun having you here.

We hope you had fun being here as well.

We hope you had fun at home as well.

We do hope you join us next week as the teams from Bedford High School in Profile High School face off in our last quarterfinal matchup.

That'll do it for us here this week on Granite State Challenge.

I hope you learned something because I did too.

We'll see you next time.

Major funding for the production of Granite State Challenge is provided by Unitil.

Additional funding provided by Bangor Savings Bank, Safety Insurance, NEA New Hampshire, Aroma Joe's and viewers like you.

Thank you.