Students from Nashua High School South who are competing in this year’s Granite State Challenge. Courtesy photo

DURHAM–Nashua High School South held on to defeat Fall Mountain Regional High School, 345 to 220, in the 44th season opener of Granite State Challenge.

Fall Mountain and Nashua South, along with teams from 34 other New Hampshire schools, took a qualifying test in November 2025 to secure one of the 16 spots in the season. Four additional teams competed in two wildcard games in December 2025 to secure a spot in the first round of games.

The Purple Panthers are captained by senior Henry Long and include seniors Eric Picanco and Thanasi Miris, as well as sophomore Charlie Long. Team alternates are senior Jerry Primo and sophomore Lexie Ross. The team is coached by Social Studies teacher Alexis Duval and English teacher Kelli Thornhill-Telerski. The Purple Panthers were Granite State Challenge champions in 2016 and 2017.

Fall Mountain is led by captain Benjamin Weightman, a senior. The team also includes seniors Lennon Doescher and Joshua Town competing alongside junior Rylie Porter, with juniors Keegan White and Nathan Sudsbury as team alternates. Fall Mountain is coached by Social Studies teacher Nicholas Belsky.

The game began with a competitive first round. Nashua’s Miris, who, along with his brothers, won the Northeast AHEPA Hellenic History Tournament in November, was in his element answering the first question of the season about the Olympic Games in Ancient Greece.

Fall Mountain quickly issued a rejoinder with Town buzzing in to answer another sports-based question, but this time about Michael Jordan and the film Space Jam. As with many Granite State Challenge pop culture questions, this topic came from an era that may feel relatively recent, but actually pre-dates the show’s contestants.

Picanco of Nashua got on the board early with a pop culture question as well, this time about Super Mario Brothers, one of multiple arts and pop culture questions he’d buzz in on. Fall Mountain’s Doescher proved similarly adept with modern music questions throughout the game, buzzing in on questions about superstars Billie Eilish and Bad Bunny.

While neither team dominated decisively in the opening round, Nashua came out to a slight lead, despite the best efforts of Fall Mountain’s Porter, who narrowed the gap as she buzzed in with two consecutive correct answers just before the round’s end.

Weightman was also proud of his team’s performance during the three-strikes-and-you’re-out format of the second round, generally considered the most strategically difficult part of the game.

“I think we only got 10 points in our Wild Card game; we got 50 this time,” he said.

In the third round, Fall Mountain gained another 50 points with help from alternates White and Sudsbury.

Henry Long admitted that Nashua was caught by surprise after choosing the subject “Fiddle Dee Dee.”

“I thought it was gonna be two words that start with D or words that had two Ds next to each other,” he said with a laugh.

Instead, Nashua got a series of questions revolving around the word “fiddle.” The team still managed to pull ahead, getting eight out of ten answers, with assistance from alternates Primo and Ross.

Nashua ended the third round 65 points ahead and continued to dominate throughout the fourth round to secure the victory. Charlie Long was particularly quick on the buzzer, answering questions that ranged from geography to biology.

Henry Long was thrilled with his team’s early victory.

“I think we played exactly how we were hoping to and expecting to,” he said. “It’s really nice to just win a game because we’ve been unlucky in the past few years.”

Weightman and Belsky both felt that the crux of the game came down to Nashua’s ability to buzz in quickly.

“Nashua had some good buzzer training and definitely beat us to a couple of questions that our kids knew,” said Belsky.

Weightman was philosophical about the team’s loss.

“I’m glad we put up a fight,” he said, noting Nashua’s relative size and experience. “It’s always a good feeling to compete.”

Duval summed up the collegial spirit of Granite State Challenge. “It was a great game. Fall Mountain performed great,” she said. We’re just as proud of them as we are of our own students.”