A team of four contestants and one alternate from Carle Place High School challenged Jericho High School in the first round of the eighth annual Long Island Challenge on Sunday, Nov. 21. The competition, moderated by popular News 12 Anchor Scott Feldman, will be shown exclusively on News 12 Long Island at 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 27.

Carle Place High School is among 32 Long Island high schools chosen at random from a field of 91 applicants to compete in the 2004-2005 season of The Long Island Challenge, an academic quiz show designed to test students' knowledge of math, science, literature, news and local history. The participating schools are divided evenly between Nassau and Suffolk counties.

"The Long Island Challenge is a terrific educational opportunity for both participants and viewers who enjoy playing along at home. The students work very hard to prepare, and each half-hour match is packed with excitement," said Dodie Tschirch, Cablevision's regional vice president of Public Affairs. "Cablevision is proud to support our young scholars and is committed to providing quality local programming. We wish Carle Place and Jericho good luck as they face off in round one."

Representing Carle Place High School will be team captain Lauren Moneco along with Kevin Smith, Nicole Kingston, Rebecca Grossman and team alternate Sophia Cahill. All are seniors. The team's academic advisors are Steven Leffler and Alice Jacoby.

Continuing each week through June 2005, the show shines the spotlight on the students' academic skills as they compete for approximately $20,000 in prizes.

The Long Island Challenge is divided into rounds that include multiple choice questions; a lightning round, where teams try to answer 10 questions in 60 seconds; and a head-to-head drill, where one contestant from each team competes in an audio/visual drill. In the final round, teams can answer questions freely, but risk losing 10 points for any incorrect answers.

Through a series of elimination rounds, schools will progress through the competition, culminating with the best team from Nassau County facing off against the best team from Suffolk County for the Long Island Championship.

More information on The Long Island Challenge, including standings, statistics and short contestant bios, will be available on www.powertolearn.com as the tournament progresses. The Long Island Challenge is sponsored by Cablevision, News 12 and Newsday. Additional information is at www.cablevision.com.