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Talented student journalists from Oakwood High School's Ax Media program brought home 14 awards from the Ohio Scholastic Media Association’s annual competition.

Highlights include:

Griffin Greear – Superior in Broadcast Feature

Honorable Mentions to Grace Geers, Millie Dean (On-Air Talent), and Mara Woodruff (Podcasting)

Additional recognition for Landon Krauss, Seth Upton, Lucas Quintero Romanowski, and Grace Geers across Broadcast News, Feature, Sports, and On-Air Talent

Plus, Griffin Greear took third place nationally in the Quill and Scroll Web, Video & Multimedia contest for his touching feature on Mr. Miller’s ties

The Quiz Bowl Team finished third place out of 15 teams at the West Central Regional Tournament on Saturday, April 12, earning the team a berth at the State tournament for the first time in over 20 years.  The team was composed of Elizabeth Erwin, Joseph Hong, Matthew Drummond, Ty Fischer and Harry Zheng.

To qualify for regionals, a team must either win its conference, or finish in the top 15% of a qualifying tournament during the season.  Oakwood entered the tournament as the SWBL conference champion.  To begin the day, each team took a 50 question seeding quiz in order to set the bracket. Oakwood answered 36 questions correctly, earning the third seed.

In the first match, Oakwood defeated #14 East Clinton 88-52.  In the second match, Oakwood defeated #6 Loveland 82-60.  

In the third match, Oakwood faced #2 seed Mason.  The match was close throughout the first two rounds, with Oakwood leading by six points entering the lightning round.  In this final round, Oakwood caught fire, answering nine consecutive questions correctly to pull away and win 88-62.  

In the winner’s bracket final, Oakwood fell to Northmont 83-64, the defending state champions. In the consolation bracket, Oakwood defeated #5 seed Tippecanoe 79-54 in the semifinals, but fell to #4 seed Talawanda 75-70.  The Jacks’ record of 4-2 on the day earned them 3rd place at Regionals.  Drummond paced the team with an average of nine correct buzzes per match, with Hong, Fischer, Erwin and Zheng each contributing several correct buzzes as well.

Based on their performance at regionals, Oakwood earned the second Wild Card spot into the state tournament, and enters the tournament ranked eighth in the state.  

“Being able to finally qualify for state my senior year makes me feel very proud of the team and everything we've accomplished so far,” Senior captain Joseph Hong said. “After all our success in SWBL and steadily improving our Regionals finish for the last 4 years, I can look back at Quiz Bowl as one of my favorite high school memories.”

The team picked up two wins at state on May 3 at Olentangy Berlin High School, defeating Fisher Catholic 65-29 and defeating Anderson by the exact same score 65-29.

All of Oakwood's losses were close until the end, with losses to Talawanda 59-58, Mason 63-52, Talawanda 53-37, and St Xavier 51-49 in overtime.

Overall, Oakwood finished eleventh in the State.  The team was composed of Elizabeth Erwin, Matthew Walton, Matthew Drummond, Eva Meehan, Harry Zheng and Alec Chodkowski.  

“It was great to see our team's hard work and the time I put in over the past few years pay off in this achievement,” Junior captain Matthew Drummond said. “The team's performance has been improving each year I have been with the team and I am excited to see how we will do at the State tournament.”  

Finally, the team salutes the contributions of past coaches John Moore (2003-2022), Janet Hess (1997-2003), and Rick Grigsby (1987-1997), who helped pave the way for the success of this year’s team. Photo and Story By: Ian Callon, story updated for breaking news by staff

Evie Davis (11) performs at Young at Art on April 26 in the library as a member of speech and debate. Davis is part of the national team this summer and will be competing in program oral interpretation. Photo By: Lauren Pleiman, Acorn Yearbook