By Renee Larr
The Zionsville Community High School Quiz Bowl team finished in first place at the national competition June 10-11 in Chicago. The team competed against Minnesota’s Wayzata High School and won two out of the final three rounds.
“It’s a great feeling. For the seniors to have the last match be for the national title, that’s a pretty fulfilling feeling. It’s a good way to end a big part of our lives,” ZCHS senior Spencer Bures said.
Co-coach Mike Fowler is equally proud of the team’s season.
“We had some really tough competition. Probably the toughest school we compete against every year is Harrison High School in Lafayette,” said Fowler, who teaches chemistry at ZCHS. “They have a really strong Quiz Bowl program. They start at the middle school level. Most schools, like us, start only at the high school level.”
Quiz Bowl is an academic trivia-style quiz game for high school students. Their knowledge is tested in areas of science, math, history, literature, mythology, geography, social science, current events, sports and popular culture.
“ZCHS has always been a powerhouse at Quiz Bowl. This year we won the season-opening kick-off tournament at Harrison High school in October, the White River Academic League tournament in February and the Indiana State Quiz Bowl championship in March,” Fowler said.
Kelli Neumann, a special education teacher at Zionsville Middle School, is Fowler’s co-coach. The team consisted of ZCHS seniors Bures, Neil Thompson, Evan Wang and Forrest Brown and sophomore Teagan Connon.
The team did not fare as well in the first national competition, held May 26-28 in Atlanta, finishing 215 out of 304 teams. It finished preliminary rounds with a 4-6 record before defeating Lancaster Mennonite from Pennsylvania in Round 1, but then lost to Homestead B from Cupertino, Calif.
For more, visit naqt.com.
