Team #1 from Mountain Lake Public High School is #1 in Region 8; moving on
The next stop for Mountain Lake Public High School’s (MLHS) Senior High Knowledge Bowl (K-Bowl) Team #1 will be the State contest in April. The team – composed of Christian Pfeiffer, Caleb Rempel, Reece Englund, Hamlet Tanyavong and Daniel Harder – will make the trip to state as the number one team representing Region 8. They finished on top of the competition during the Region 8 Regional Event held Thursday, March 13 on the campus of Southwest Minnesota State University-Marshall (SMSU). The team had earlier also taken top honors in the Region 8 Sub-Regional contest held on Tuesday, March 11, also at SMSU.
The K-Bowl Team garnered 104 team points to win the title. Finishing second was the Team #1 from Jackson County Central with 89 total team points. These two teams, along with third-place Murray County Central Team #2 (83 points) move on to compete at the state level, Thursday, April 10 and Friday, April 11 at Cragun’s Conference Center in Brainerd, Minnesota. Forty-eight teams in two tiers will compete in one written round and five oral rounds during the state event.
A second MLHS team advanced to the Region 8 Event from the Sub-Regional. Members of Team #2 include Anna Engstrom, Sam Xayanourom, Sam Hirsch, Julian Jung and Rebekah Klassen. Team #2 amassed team points for a 12th-place finish.
MLHS coaches are Jon Harder, school technology coordinator; Jessica Svehla, English/social studies teacher and Nicholas Kvam, chemistry/physics/science instructor.
Minnesota Service Cooperative Knowledge Bowl competitions are interdisciplinary academic contests for students. The Senior High Knowledge Bowl is for students in grades 9-12. During the contest, teams of students compete in written and oral rounds by answering questions related to all areas of learning, typical of secondary educational programs. Questions come from curriculum areas including American history, world history, government, current events, economics and law, geography, literature, English, mathematics, physical science, life science, earth science, health and psychology, art and music and general knowledge of Minnesota. The questions have been randomized so that within each round, there will not be a string of items from a particular curriculum area. Questions test students recall, problem solving, and critical thinking skills.
Teams consist of five students (five competing in the written round and four competing in each oral round). Teams compete in Round Robin contests throughout the season and a Sub-Regional, with the top teams from each tier advancing to Regionals. Finally, the top two teams from Tier A and top two teams from Tier AA – plus the third place team from either tier that has the highest score – advance to the State competition. During a contest, teams race against each other to be the first to “buzz in” and answer the questions correctly.
The motto that challenges all K-Bowl teams is “The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.”