Tuesday morning the students of the area's high schools sent their six best competitors to bring home the Carbon County Academic Meet 2017 trophy.

For the 12 years since its creation, Weatherly Area Middle School hosted the three-round competition. State Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon, was "quizmaster" for the championship round."I thought it would be wonderful to have the students meet someone who represents us," said Weatherly Area School District gifted support teacher and online facilitator Katie Leach.The former social studies teacher said she wanted a local government representative as the guest quizzer."When we first began, Keith McCall was our state representative, and thankfully, Rep. Heffley has continued the tradition."The Lehighton, Jim Thorpe, Weatherly, Palmerton, Panther Valley and Carbon Career & Technical Institute sent their teams of six at 9 a.m. to answer questions covering everything from philosophy to biology and, of course, government."What should you do if you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant," was asked during the Lehighton versus Panther Valley round."Eat it," answered Panther Valley's team.The questions asked to the teams were gathered from various places including a "Knowledge Masters" team, Leach said."I always enjoy this, just hearing the questions. These young people are so bright," said Dennis Serfass, retired Lehighton principal and academic meet judge.Palmerton and Jim Thorpe went head to head in the final round where Heffley asked roughly 50 questions. Jim Thorpe took home the win with a score of 580 total compared to Palmerton's 400."They are very good," said Palmerton coach Alex Knoll."But we only missed six questions."The names engraved on the trophy over the past four years are both Palmerton and Jim Thorpe, creating a friendly academic rivalry."We missed last year because we went to the Steel Stacks competition," said Jim Thorpe English teacher and team adviser Shelly Moyer."We get to bring the trophy back to the school and bragging rights," junior Trevor Keefer said.The Jim Thorpe team said practice was the main ingredient in its fourth academic meet win."We practiced once a week with the buzzers," junior Ian Montelius said."The kids are so motivated and will educate themselves on things we don't have on the curriculum. Also it's team work," Moyer said."All the kids know different things, the mix of personalities and individual interest. I'm seriously lucky to have this group," she said.Moyer said any student who is interested in joining the team just has to come to practice and express interest."Then we take the best from the practice. A lot of them come from ACE, academic challenge eight for the eighth-graders," she said."The team is all highs school ages but the two seniors we have been competing since they were freshmen.""You know the future is in good hands when you see young people like this," Serfass said.