The Garrett High School Social Studies Academic Team will advance to the State Finals in the Indiana Academic Super Bowl for the first time since 2002. GHS will head to Purdue University on May 9 for its second-ever trip to State Finals.
Teams from around the state took part in different Area Meets on Tuesday that were also separated into class by size of school. At the Bishop Luers Area Meet, Garrett placed second in Social Studies after correctly answering 17 of 25 questions correctly to become one of six squads in Class 3 to advance to State Finals.
Garrett’s Social Studies team will be making its second trip to State Finals and will mark the 17th appearance by a GHS squad overall. The Railroaders have qualified in English six times including a State Championship in 2023. Garrett’s math squad has advanced three times with a State Title coming in 1988. There have also been three trips to State Finals for Science, two for Interdisciplinary, and one for Fine Arts.
This year, Garrett High School had two Social Studies teams coached by Bill Thomas including the senior group of Aiden Boltz, Sophia Boltz, Christian Fast, Luke Hicks, and Abby Thomas which will be heading to State Finals. All five of these seniors were also part of the GHS trip to Washington DC in March, which served as the perfect preparation for this year’s Academic Super Bowl them, “The American Revolution” which was designed to celebrate our nation’s Semisesquicentennial.
Thomas will be making her third trip to State Finals after being part of the State Champion GHS English Team as a freshman and its third place finish last season as a junior. Fast heads to State Finals for the second time in his career as he was also on the first ever Garrett Fine Arts team to qualify for State during his freshman year.
The group also includes three Eagle Scouts (Coach Thomas, Fast, and Hicks) and two of the three Boltz triplets (brother Connor is also a senior at GHS).
The second Social Studies team that competed at the Area Meet was made up of Kylie Bergman, Kaeuna Dircksen, Alexia Moynahan, and Alex Smith.
Garrett had a strong overall performance with its top Fine Arts and English teams each placing amongst the Top 15 in the State.
Fine Arts was 11th at the Area Meet and was coached by Jennifer White. The group of Hailee Ash, Noah Jones, Moynahan, Smith, and Ali Perkins answered 17 questions correctly to finish just two away from a bid to State Finals. GHS also had a second Fine Arts team composed of Christian and Owen Fast along with Sam Wingate.
The Garrett English Team nearly made its second straight trip to State Finals as it scored 21 points to place 14th overall. This season, the group of Thomas, Bergman, and Kendra Kelham was coached by Jonelle Furnish.
Also competing at the Area Meet this week were the Math and Science teams from GHS. Each group had 14 questions correct. The Math squad consisted of Ash, Ashton Gong, and Lucie White and was coached by David Stevens. Garrett’s Science Team was mentored by Dustin Sewelin with students Wesley Blaker, Aiden Boltz, Brady Cagle, Greg Freeze, and Hicks competing at the Area Meet Tuesday night.