Wednesday July 18, 2012

North Adams Transcript

WILLIAMSTOWN -- The Mount Greylock Regional High School quiz bowl team has been named Western Massachusetts champions for a second consecutive year.

The team, consisting of all seniors, beat Smith Academy, of Hatfield, by a score of 315-140 in the championship round of WGBY Springfield’s "As Schools Match Wits" competition. The championship was broadcast on June 23.

"It’s nice that we could bring home another championship, and show off Mount Greylock to Western Massachusetts," coach Blair Dils, an English teacher at Mount Greylock, said Monday.

With the exception of a close semifinal match against Northampton High School, Mount Greylock had very little trouble dominating the other four matches, he said.

"We had a very talented team this year with three of the four members returning from last year," he said.

Returning team members were Dakota "DJ" Ross and Edward "Ned" Kleiner, both of Williamstown, and Josh Harrington, of Lanesborough. They were joined by Karl Mick, of Lanesborough, and Luke Costley, of Williamstown, who served as an alternate.

"We had a pretty good balance on the team in terms of knowledge in literature, history, math and science. DJ was our pop culture expert, and Ned was really a force to be reckoned with," Dils said.

Kleiner said Tuesday that he was really happy that the team was undefeated for a second season.

"It is definitely a good

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feeling," he said.

Mount Greylock was one of 50 schools from Western Massachusetts and Northwestern Connecticut to compete in "As Schools Match Wits" this year. The show began in 1961, and was the creation of Leonard J. Collamore, after whom the coveted championship trophy is named.

Last year, Mount Greylock won the competition and then went on to compete against Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School, which claimed the Eastern Massachusetts title competing on WGBH Boston’s "High School Quiz Show." Hamilton-Wenham ended up winning the state title by a score of 870-610.

Dils said that this year, "High School Quiz Show" decided to open up its competition to any high school in the state.

"They invited us to participate, but we politely declined. It’s much more of a game show out east. The team decided it was more comfortable with the format we have out west," he said.

To reach Meghan Foley, email mfoley@thetranscript.com.