A team from Beaufort High School took the top spot recently in Beaufort County’s Academic WorldQuest Competition for the third consecutive year.

Beaufort High’s White Team finished No. 1, with Bluffton High’s Black Team finishing just behind in second place. Beaufort High’s Green team finished third.

First-place Beaufort High White Team members were Rasikh Hamid, May Harrelson, Sarah Suber and Alex Mazzeo. The team was coached by Debi Kidd.

The second-place Bluffton High Black Team members were Morgan Rizer, Haley Hubner, Josh Perri, Rory Witkowski and Eugene Yan. The team was coached by Pam Wolske.

The third-place Beaufort High Green team, also coached by Debi Kidd, was composed of Hays McDaniel, Max Crisologo, Aaron Peterson and Clayton Ruff.

The World Affairs Council of Hilton Head presented the annual Academic WorldQuest Competition in partnership with the Beaufort County School District. During the competition at Hilton Head Island High, eight high school teams faced a screen where multiple-choice questions were projected. Using electronic “clickers,” they had 30 seconds to answer each question posed. Audience members sat behind the competing teams and were able to see the questions as they were projected on the screen.

This year's categories for questions focused on the nation’s top national security issues as voted on by the leaders of World Affairs Councils across the country. Those issues include: NATO, Asia, international trade and finance, food security and privacy in the digital age. Also included were questions on current events, world geography and global health.

This year’s winning team from Beaufort County will travel to Washington for the national competition, said Carlton Dallas, a Hilton Head businessman who serves as the project director for WorldQuest in Beaufort County.

“Our Academic World Quest Scholars learn about the world and develop a keen understanding of the underlying reasons for geopolitical outcomes,” Dallas said. “They study such topics as NATO, food security and privacy in the digital age, a particularly relevant topic in view of Apple's response to the recent federal court order. Quite often these outcomes are confusing to those who don't follow events over time, but our AWQ Scholars are well informed and are able to hold extremely logical conversations and provide insights that are not only informative, but also impressive in the depth of their thinking."