LHS Quiz Bowl Teams Competes In National Tournament
Team Takes Sixth In Division; Michael Powers Earns First Place Overall
The Louisiana Quiz Bowl team competed in the National Small School Championship in Chicago over the weekend with the team finishing in the top 10 of 96 schools, and sixth place overall in the “Very Small School” category in addition to team captain Michael Powers earning first place overall in the tournament.
The team traveled to the Windy City on Friday, April 27 and had the opportunity to visit downtown Chicago to see Cloud Gate, the “Bean” as it is better known in the afternoon. The evening was spent scrimmaging other quiz bowl teams from throughout the country and getting accustomed to the national format, which is different from the state level.
Competition began on Saturday. Louisiana competed in 10 matches with the following results: Athens, Wis. (355-120 win), Itawamba, Miss “B” (420-70 win), Bridge Creek, Ohio (400-290 win), Cooperstown, New York (400-300 loss), Cloverlead, Ohio (380-235 win), Southwestern Piasa, Ill. (430-285 loss), Huntingdon, Penn. “A” (325-280 win), Danville, Kent. (330-270 loss), and New Berlin, Ill. (480-120 win).
This gave the team a 7-3 record which qualified them for the double-elimination playoff rounds on Sunday.
The morning began with a rematch against Danville, Kent., in which LHS avenged Saturday’s loss with a 390-205 victory. The win brought the Bulldogs face to face with the number one seed in the tournament, Glasgow “A” from Kentucky. While they put up a fight, Louisiana lost to the eventual winners of the tournament by a score of 580-230.
Despite the loss, the Bulldogs went on to play Macomb, Ill., and won by a score of 420-280. Next up was Raceland, Kent., where Louisiana came up short 520-170.
This second loss in the playoffs put Louisiana in 10th place out of 96 teams. A final round to determine placement in the “Very Small School” division matched the Bulldogs with Camp Hill, Penn. The Bulldogs fell 360-265 putting them in sixth place out of the 53 in the division.
Louisiana team captain Michael Powers placed first overall individually in the tournament in which 527 students from across the country participated. Powers answered 117 tossups in the preliminary rounds, 40 of which were for “power” which is when a question is answered very early and therefore earns extra points.
Overall Powers answered 163 tossups with 61 for power. LHS Coach Malia Jolly noted that having an exceptional player on the team can make it difficult to answer tossups but team members Brandy Farmer, Evan Jones, Rachel Beard, Hunter Hobbs and Jerry Perez all contributed by helping answer bonus questions, in which the team can confer. Also, sophomore Brandy Farmer answered three tossups (one for power), Hunter Hobbs answered three tossups (two for power) and Evan Jones answered a tossup. She noted that overall it was a great weekend of Quizbowl for LHS.
Louisiana will take part in the State Championship at University of Missouri-Columbia this Friday, May 4.
