LMS team captures Challenge of the Books title

The Lovell Middle School championship team in the school Challenge of the Books contest advanced to the area competition held in Basin last week and won it all.

The team of team captain Weston Hendershot, Chloe Asay, Kylie Nicholls, Isaac Sanders, Emily Sanders and Nellie Guccion – competing at the school competition in December as the Bougie Jacuzzis -- placed first last Wednesday, Feb. 19, in Basin, topping five other teams, LMS library paraprofessional Gwen Walker said.

The annual contest tests the ability of a middle school student to read and retain knowledge from books they were assigned to read, collaborating to answer a series of questions from presenters.

Students read up to 12 books selected for the competition, then responded to a series of questions posed by the presenter with their answer in the form of the title and author of the book.

The team had 30 seconds to huddle and come up with a response after each question, with the team captain stating the answer after the huddle. If the team answers incorrectly, the opposing team had 15 seconds to come up with the correct response.

“We took first out of six schools,” Walker said in announcing the title. “We also got to listen to an author who had written one of the Indian Paintbrush books at Riverside High School.

“With all of the snow and cold temps, we were afraid we were going to have to postpone, but it all worked out.”

The Lovell team won four of the five rounds for a score of 310, with Burlington placing second, Cody third, Rocky Mountain fourth, Worland fifth and Powell sixth.

“This was Danielle Henley’s first year as their coach,” Walker said. “She did an awesome job getting them ready. And Weston Hendershot has been working on a team since last year, planning a comeback.”