Countywide : Students to Compete in Academic Contest

Ten Orange County high school students will compete for $75,000 in scholarships against more than 500 others from across the country in an academic contest to be held Saturday through June 11.

The local students--four seniors and one sophomore from Edison High School in Huntington Beach and five seniors from Valley High School in Santa Ana--will participate in a college bowl-type contest in pursuit of the National Academic Championship title.

Texaco Star is sponsoring the event to promote academic excellence.

“We’re in support of the country’s top students and all their efforts,” said Wendy Nichols of Texaco. “It’s very important to salute and support academic athletes who will be the leaders of the future.”

Edison team members are: Eric Carlson, 16; Sean Evans, 17; Brent Ridley, 18; Bree Hann, 17, and Nancy Farghalli, 18. Valley players are: Lich Doan, 17; Tranh Doan, 17; Waiyi Tse, 18; Johan DeWall, 18, and Martin Vu, 17.

To qualify for the national competition, the Valley team, coached by teachers Andy Martinez, Greg Sommer and Julie Van Vooren, won the Orange County Kiwanis Bowl in February. The Edison team, coached by teacher Linda Carpenter, won the UC Riverside College Bowl in April.

The first player from 84 participating student teams to hit the buzzer and correctly answer the question receives points for his team.

In Round Two, four-part questions are asked. Winners advance to the semifinalist competition and compete in a speed round in which they try to answer as many questions as possible from one category.

Finalists are then chosen to repeat Round One, and the winning team gets the $50,000 in scholarships. The team coming in second will receive $25,000.

The sixth annual championship competition to be held at Houston’s Rice University will be televised nationally.