Houston teams win Jimmy Carter National Historic Site Academic Bowl

Two teams from Houston County walked away with the top honors at the annual Academic Bowl held at the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site on Feb. 24-25.

Huntington Middle School won the middle school competition, while Warner Robins High School won the high school competition. They beat out schools not only from Houston County, but from across the midstate and south Georgia as well.

The competition was held at Plains High School Museum, where President Carter attended school. Plains High School, the official state school of Georgia, serves as the main entrance of the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site and is one of four venues that make up the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site. The other three are the train depot that served as President Carter's presidential campaign headquarters, his boyhood home and the Carters' current residence. The school, the depot and the boyhood home are all open to the public.

Randy Dillard, one of the park rangers at the Jimmy Carter Historic Site who assisted with the Academic Bowl, said it was created at least 19 years ago as another way to get students involved in learning.

"We have a lot of educational groups that come here on field trips. They are learning about President Carter or the era President Carter grew up in, the Depression," Dillard said.

The Academic Bowl is broken up into several rounds of competition. Huntington Middle School and Warner Robins High School both received a trophy, and each of the team members received a certificate. The questions were from topics mainly pertaining to history -- American history, world history and geography.

Members of the Warner Robins High team were Rebecca Walde, Dustin Priaulx, James Luppino and Walker Wright. The team was coached by Louis Leskosky and Scott Daniel.

It was the second year in a row that Warner Robins High School placed first in the competition.

The Huntington Middle School team consisted of Aaron Hodo, Elina Hale, Farinaz Zahiri, Margot Nicholson, Peyton Owings, Victoria Martin, Jordan Rice and Aiden Malcolm. It is coached by Jeff Knutson.

This story was originally published March 8, 2016 at 9:38 PM with the headline "Houston teams win Jimmy Carter National Historic Site Academic Bowl ."