On April 26, the JC It’s Academic Team won the Harford County Championship in a sudden death round against C. Milton Wright. The team, which experienced success earlier in their season, participated in six preliminary rounds before going on to the playoffs, according to Academic Team moderator Bob Schick.

The championship-winning team consisted of senior captain Eric Wright, seniors Liam Dunn and Michael Sanphillipo, sophomore Drew Forthman, and freshmen Jack Plumer, Pierce Berger, and Paul Capobianco.

JC played C. Milton Wright High School, Fallston High School, North Harford High School, Havre de Grace High School, Edgewood High School and Bel Air High School in the preliminary rounds. According to Forthman, the team “lost the first three games” to C. Milton, Fallston, and North Harford before they advanced to the playoffs, where they were the number three seed.

The Academic Team then played Fallston, the number two seed, in the semi-finals and beat them, with a final score of 230-160”. The team then advanced to the final round where they played C. Milton, who had been undefeated so far in the championship, again.

After four rounds, JC and C. Milton were tied with 140 points each. After ten “tossup questions,” where any team can answer the question, the teams were still tied with 190 points each. In sudden death overtime, Forthman correctly answered what would be the final question to win the Harford County Academic Team Championships.

“We weren’t expecting a win,” Forthman said. However, the team was pleased they won another Harford County Championship.

The team also won the Harford County Championships last year and were happy to continue their winning streak. Despite their success over the past two years, some team members are skeptical about their success next year. “Only three people on the team aren’t seniors, so [next season] will probably be middle-of-the road but we’ll try our best,” Capobianco said.

Grace Mottley is a News Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.