Students bring smarts to Academic Bowl
Senior Levi Moody, taken down during this play at North Myrtle Beach last week, is off to a good start for the Lions of Loris High. South Columbus hosts the Lions tonight. (Photo courtesy Vernell Blanton)
Senior Levi Moody, taken down during this play at North Myrtle Beach last week, is off to a good start for the Lions of Loris High. South Columbus hosts the Lions tonight. (Photo courtesy Vernell Blanton)
Senior Levi Moody, taken down during this play at North Myrtle Beach last week, is off to a good start for the Lions of Loris High. South Columbus hosts the Lions tonight. (Photo courtesy Vernell Blanton)
Senior Levi Moody, taken down during this play at North Myrtle Beach last week, is off to a good start for the Lions of Loris High. South Columbus hosts the Lions tonight. (Photo courtesy Vernell Blanton)
Showing their smarts once again, members of the Warren County High School quiz bowl team captured second place in the WCTE-TV Academic Bowl.
The team’s high finish came despite a communication glitch that resulted in an early forfeit and forced them into the loser’s bracket, where they made their way undefeated into the final round of competition.
The 17th annual WCTE-TV Academic Bowl was held recently by the Cookeville-based public television station. A double-elimination tournament, it featured 14 academic teams from across the station’s Upper Cumberland viewing area.
To place in the top two, Warren County team members had to successfully answer questions from a broad range of subjects including science, history, current events, sports, the arts, pop culture, literature, foreign languages and PBS programming. Leading the team in scoring was team captain Nathan Maxwell.
Because the team was forced into the loser’s bracket, to capture first place in the final round they would have had to beat winner’s bracket leader, Cookeville High School, twice. The team won the first of its two matches against the perennial champ, but fell short in the second match.
Despite the disappointing finish, team co-coach Derek Mullican said he was quite pleased with the performance. “These students are the intellectual cream of the crop. They put forth a terrific performance and are a credit to this community. I’m very proud of them,” he said.
Words of praise also came from WCTE-TV station manager Becky Magura.
“Warren County is always a very competitive, really strong team and it’s always a pleasure to have them attend. This year the tournament was particularly exciting, with Warren County only losing once the entire time, and at that in the playoffs,” she said.
WCTE-TV began airing the academic bowl last Monday and will continue to do so at 5 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. every week day through May 20.
The Warren County quiz bowl team can be seen in action on the following days: April 30, May 6, May 12, May 14, May 16, May 19 and May 20.