Team #1 from MLHS is #1 in Region 8; moving on to State Senior High Knowledge Bowl – Tier A
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 seniors Reece Englund, Hamlet Tanyavong, Daniel Harder and Caleb Rempel – 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 event held Thursday, March 12, on the campus of Southwest Minnesota State University-Marshall (SMSU). They will be one of three teams from the Region to advance to the State competition. Thirty-six total teams competed.
The team had earlier taken top honors in the Region 8 Sub-Regional contest held on Tuesday, March 10, at Minnesota West Community College in Worthington. Team #1 easily made their way to the title, compiling 131 total team points – and spending the entire tourney competing in the “top room.”
Also competing were two additional MLHS Teams. MLHS Team #2 (Lily Kauffman, Rebekah Klassen, Liana Blomgren, Sam Hirsch and Sam Xayanourom finished fifth with 81.5 points, qualifying to move on to the Region. At that contest this past Thursday, Team #2 finished in 10th place. Team #3 – Karen Soutthivong, Sam Grev and Kassandra Tellez – were 23rd at the Sub-Regional.
The top 13 teams from the 27 which competed at the Region 8 Sub-Regional advanced to Thursday’s Region 8 meet.
During the 2015 season, the three Senior High Knowledge Bowl teams attended five invitationals during January, February and March, hosted at Murray County Central, Red Rock Central, Windom, Jackson County Central, and Mountain Lake.
MLHS coach is Jon Harder, Mountain Lake Public School technology coordinator.
The 2015 Senior High Knowledge Bowl State Competition – for both Tier A (in which MLHS Team #1 compete with same-size schools) and Tier AA teams (larger schools) – will be held Thursday, April 9 and Friday, April 10, 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.
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 up to five students (five competing in the written round and four competing in each oral round). During a contest, teams race against each other to be the first to “buzz in” and answer the questions correctly.
Teams compete in Round Robin contests throughout the season and a Sub-Regional, working to advance to the Regional. The top two teams from Tier A and top two teams from Tier AA in each Region – plus the third-place team from either tier that has the highest score – advance to the State competition.
The motto that challenges all K-Bowl teams is “The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.”
