Russell places in national competition
May 2—Students from Russell High School competed last Saturday on a national level in Chicago for the 2023 Small School National Championship Tournament.
Modeled after a Quick Recall-style trivia showdown, two teams from Russell made up two of six total teams from the state of Kentucky.
The competition featured more than 77 teams from 20 states.
Team one from Russell consisted of Captain Brody Kilburn, Ahya Farhat, Justin Jiang and Snehan Saroch. Team two was comprised of Captain Alden Frederick, Ian Broun, Yasmeen Farhat, Ethan Gilliam and Laura Jiang.
Team A walked away with an eighth-place tie and racked up a five-game winning streak against teams from Florida, Colorado, Iowa and Missouri.
Team A (Kilburn, A. Farhat, J. Jiang and Saroch) ultimately lost to the overall champion, Fair Grove from Missouri.
Team B, (Frederick, Broun, Y. Farhat, Gillam and L. Jiang) finished with a 4-6 record, topping teams from Toledo, Ohio, West Point, Virginia, and a team from Michigan.
Team B, consisting of entirely sophomores and freshman, finished 45th.
The two teams were coached by Kirk Barnett, Susan Williams, Bryan Enders and Bob Templeton.
"This amazing group of young kids seemed really hungry to excel. I've known all year they had great potential but they kept surprising me," Barnett said.
The two competition teams were all lowerclassmen with only one junior in the mix.
Following the completion of last weekend's national competition, the teams will head back to work, this time with the inclusion of incoming freshmen who finished in the top 10 in state Governor's Cup in March.
