Albany Middle School beat out Merry Acres Middle School to win the 2018 Academic Bowl crown Thursday.

All four DCSS middle schools competed against each other in the academic tournament aimed at testing each team’s knowledge and teamwork.

AMS will lead the Dougherty County School System contingent of schools to the regional competition at Georgia Southwestern State University. Merry Acres Middle and Robert A Cross Middle Magnet School will also advance.

“It’s a challenge,” Academic Bowl organizer Rodney Daniels said. “It takes a lot to learn the information on top of their regular class work.”

Hosted statewide by the Professional Association of Georgia Educators or PAGE, the Academic Bowl uses academically validated and research-based trivia from the last four years to test teams’ knowledge of materials. Students are given a range of questions that may be asked in order to prepare.