St. Francis Xavier Floors Pope John SHS In 2018 NSMQ

A fancied side at the 2018 National Science and Maths Quiz, Pope John SHS, was trampled over by a less fancied St. Francis Xavier Jr. Seminary and Swedru SHS to leave them shell-shocked.

Wa-based St. Francis Xavier Jr. Seminary who were 2014 finalist snatched a very late victory from Swedru SHS who had led in four rounds until the final round.

The three points were enough to hand St. Francis Xavier Jr. Seminary a ticket to the next stage in a pulsating tiebreaker.

End of contest: St. Francis Xavier: 47 pts, Swedru SHS: 44 pts, Pope John SHS: 39 pts.

But second-laced Swedru SHS were still giant slayers again after placing five-point higher than elite Pope John SHS.

The defeat was no fluke as Swedru SHS is the reason why another big school St. Augustine's College is not even at the national contest after trouncing them at the regional level in February to pick a ticket for the main stage.

Swedru SHS's stock would increase immensely as they have defeated 2001 champions Pope John SHS and 2007 champions St. Augustine, both feats coming within the last four months.

Pope John SHS were seen as favourites for this tie at the University of Ghana but from round one to round five, their campaign struggled.

They placed third and never got up in all rounds as they best was not enough for a tie that had been hyped enough.

As Pope John SHS sunk under the academic weight of Swedru SHS and St. Francis Xavier, it was these two schools that served a contest to remember.

After storming through three rounds with wins, Swedru SHS appeared to lose steam, allowing St. Francis Xavier Jr. Seminary to push them to a nail-biting last round.

The two were tied at 44 pts after five rounds to send the contest to a tiebreaker where one correct answer would secure a victory.

St. Francis Xavier after a momentum-gathering performance added a photo finish to leaving Swedru rueing their missed chances.

The two schools have met before in 2016 at the one-eight stage but both lost to Sekondi College with Swedru doing better than St. Francis Xavier.

But two years later the Wa-based school have inflicted a revenge.

The two losing schools Swedru SHS and Pope John SHS would, however, find solace in the fact that their point tally is high enough to fall within the 18 high-scoring but losing schools to be selected to joint 27 winners at the next stage.

Story by Ghana|myjoyonline.com|Edwin Appiah|[email protected]