By Katiee McKinstry

On May 11th, Sugar Hill’s North Gwinnett Middle School sent teams to compete in the National Championship Quiz Bowl Tournament. North Gwinnett has qualified for the tournament four years in a row and sent two unique teams to this year’s competition. The 191-team competition was held in Chicago.

The quiz bowl is a tournament where two teams compete against each other to answer several questions from any knowledge area. For example, some of the knowledge areas include history, literature, pop culture, science and fine arts. The quiz bowl uses the buzzer system, which students can use once they know the answer. The competition features individual talent and teamwork as well. Any school or homeschool group can start a quiz bowl team.

North Gwinnett sent two teams, Team A and B, to the Quiz Bowl. Sending two teams is considered unique, as most schools only send one. North Gwinnett’s Team A consisting of eight-graders Shobana Santhanam, Albert Doan, Clarissa Reizenson and Naman Tellakula ranked nationally at the 13th spot, and Team B at 124th. Team B was comprised of Thashaan Lulla, Gleb Alikhver, Aaryan Desai, Ariya Desai, Madeline Dodson, Wyatt Moses, Richard Zhou, Siddarth Mehta, Kirk Siegele and Jack Prewitt.

Team A scored a total of 4,805 points and Team B scored 2,310 points. While Team B did come in behind Team A, they worked hard to get to the quiz bowl. Team B beat three nationally ranked teams in one competition.  Both teams did an excellent job and should be proud of themselves.

To learn more about the rankings of the quiz bowl teams visit https://www.naqt.com/stats/tournament/standings.jsp?tournament_id=8399.