Six eighth-grade students from Northwestern Lehigh Middle School have been practicing for the Academic Challenge Eighth for several months under the guidance of advisors Richard Kulp and Justin Arifaj.

The competition took place at Northwestern Lehigh Middle School on Feb. 23 and 24 with finals held during the evening of Feb. 25.

Mother Nature, however, had other ideas when schools were delayed due to weather.

Competing middle school students were from Northwestern Lehigh, Northern Lehigh, Palmerton, Tamaqua, Catasauqua, Panther Valley, Lehighton and Jim Thorpe school districts.

On Feb. 25, Tamaqua and Northwestern competed in the semi-finals on the middle school stage. Both of these teams were undefeated with the winner advancing to the finals.

Moderator Alisa Kemmerer explained there were five sets of alternating questions covering history, math, science, geography and language arts.

Each correct answer would earn points based on the type of question, either a general question or a bonus question.

In round two, buzzers were added with points being deleted from the score if a team buzzed in before the question was read in its entirety and subsequently answered incorrectly.

Northwestern students often buzzed in before the entire question was read with most of their answers being correct.

Some of the questions included: If p + 3 1/3 = 9, What is p? Answer: 5 2/3.

Another question was: What is a whale's equivalent of a nose called? Answer: a blow hole.

At the conclusion of the semi-final, Northwestern was ahead of Tamaqua by 34-15 and would advance to the finals that evening.

The next session of the competition had Jim Thorpe and Palmerton competing with Palmerton winning the remaining berth in the finals.

In the finals, Northwestern, still undefeated, competed against Palmerton, which had lost one game, and lost the first round 29-31.

However, as a result of the double elimination rule, the two schools competed again, with Northwestern winning 36-31.

The students said they were proud to win at home.

The team of Co-captains Will Dellicker and Alex Madeira, along with Chris Hippensteel, Derek Holmes and Sarah Supplee realized although they were in an academic atmosphere they were under the same type of pressure and competition athletes experience.