County Students Compete in Quiz Bowl Challenge

There's league and district titles in sports, there's opening night for the drama clubs, there's the ACC for bands... And there's the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit Pennsylvania State Academic Competion (also known as Quiz Bowl) for our young, academic all-stars.

Wissahickon High School students showed off their brain power in a close win at the annual Pennsylvania State Academic Competition regional event sponsored by the MCIU on March 29. The team was victorious in the final match against Upper Dublin High School and Mt. St. Joseph Academy, answering difficult questions about literature, American history, contemporary events, world history, potpourri, and science. 

Wissahickon finished with 70 points in the final round, while Upper Dublin scored 60 and Mt. St. Joseph Academy scored 50.

 “All teams are to be congratulated for their obvious depth of knowledge and awareness of current events. We wish Upper Dublin good luck at the state competition,” said Kendall Glouner, MCIU Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Professional Development. “MCIU enjoys hosting the event each year to promote excellence and develop the leadership skills of our best and brightest students.”

Altogether, 18 teams competed, including Abington High School, Bishop McDevitt High School, Harriton High School, Hatboro-Horsham High School, Mount St. Joseph Academy, Norristown High School, Plymouth Whitemarsh High School, Pottsgrove High School, Springfield Township High School, , Upper Merion High School, Upper Perkiomen High School, Lower Moreland High School, Cheltenham High School, Wissahickon High School, Germantown Academy, , and Lower Merion High School.

The competition mandates a maximum of six competitors from each school to be in attendance with four competing per round. Three teams compete against each other twice in the preliminary rounds to determine the top scorers. Then, the top three teams go to the finals for the regional crown.

Upper Dublin High School defended its title at Spring-Ford this year, but couldn't hold on against Wissahickon, sending a new team to the state competition.

On May 4, the winning regional teams from all over the state will compete in the Pennsylvania State Academic Competition at the state Capital in Harrisburg. Each of the 29 intermediate units in Pennsylvania are permitted to send one high school academic team to participate in the competition. The championship team will receive a $2,000 scholarship for their high school and will have the opportunity to participate in the Panasonic Academic Challenge at Disney World in June. The Pennsylvania Academic Competition started in 1992.

Kristen Rawlings, Montgomery County Intermediate Unit Communications Director, contributed to this report.

Special to LRSC Patch

The Spring-Ford Rams, led by Advisors Elaine Ruppert and Josee Voorstad placed fifth overall in the competition. Ruppert took a few minutes to chat with Editor Kevin Haslam about the day.

"We came in fifth overall which is good, but we wanted it," Ruppert said. "I’m hoping next year we have pretty much all seniors on our team."

LRSC Patch: How many students did you have on the team?

Ruppert: On our actual academic team, we had 18 students. We picked the most competitive five to go to this competition.

Patch: Who competed today?

Ruppert: Amanda Jurewicz, Nikhil Bhat, Michael Griego, Nick Goman, Nana Nimako.

Patch: So tell us about today and your overall thoughts.

Ruppert: First of all, it’s probably the most fun competition we do all year. We compete with all the teams in the league throughout our month-long season. Many of them were there today, Pottsgrove and Souderton were there today. We had a televised competition we filmed last week, which will be aired on RCTV this week.

This match is really fun. It’s nice to see where you stand through the rest of the county and it’s a really fun day. It’s the highlight of our season. A couple of years ago, we won it and went to state. We’re trying to relive that. I think it was three years ago. Last year we won the league.

Patch: So is this it for you guys?

Ruppert: This was the last competition of the season. It’s fun. It’s like a team jeopardy. They work together as a team. It’s neat. We really need to start recruiting more students to be involved next year.

Patch: How do you go about doing that?

Ruppert: The other coach and I talk about that all the time. It used to be nice when the one gifted support teacher kind of picked the ones who would be good at it. Josee and I teach upper classmen, but it’s really something they need to start when they’re young and practice. You have to practice knowing when to buzz in and be comfortable with what you know and have to want to take risks. You need a certain type of student who does well in the academic team. They’re sometimes hard to find.

Patch: You guys went up against defending champion Upper Dublin today. Were the kids intimidated or ready to go?

Ruppert: They weren’t intimidated at all. Our first round was against two really strong teams. The second round, sometimes it depends on who you end up with that you’re playing against, or sometimes it depends on questions you know and don’t know. Another five or 10 points would have put us in the running, but it’s the way it goes. Upper Dublin got into the finals. They’re always strong competitors. Wisahickon had phenom scores and a great day.

Patch: Anything else you want to add?

Ruppert: Josee and I are very proud of our students. I think it takes a lot of guts to put yourself out there and compete with your knowledge. We just really appreciate working with these students. It’s really fun.