Seward High Captures Central Conference Quiz Bowl Championship at Conference Quiz Bowl Tourney

April 15, 2016

The Seward High Quiz Bowl team captured the Central Conference Quiz Bowl Championship at the annual Central Conference Quiz Bowl tournament held on Wednesday, April 13 in an all-day event, with teams competing in a general knowledge quiz bowl that focused on math, science, literature, history, music, art and other general topics at the high school knowledge level.  This was the largest Central Conference Quiz Bowl tournament to date, involving nine of the ten partner schools, with each school having two teams represented in the tourney.  The event featured a morning of round robin playoffs, with each team competing in four matches, with the total points generated and wins and losses used to determine the afternoon seeding for the single elimination tourney.

Seward High Team A, composed of Evan Mettenbrink-Captain, Ben Galusha, Will Brown, Will Helmer and Josh Hendrickson were the Academic Quiz Bowl Central Conference Champs for 2016-defeating Holdrege High Team A in the final round. They are coached by Clark Kolterman.  Second Place was awarded to Holdrege High School’s Quiz Bowl Team A, coached by Dennis Woodruff.  The Third Place trophy was awarded to York High Team A, coached by Sheila Hubbard and the Seward Quiz Bowl Team B won the Fourth Place Central Conference Quiz Bowl trophy.  The Seward High Fourth Place Team members included Montana Hill-Captain, Evan Nottingham, Ryan Wall and Nolan Homp.  Each of the four top teams won a trophy and the Seward Team A also received the official first place gold Central Conference engraved medals.

Each team played four matches in the morning.  The Seward Quiz Bowl Team A defeated Aurora High, Fairbury High, and Crete High and lost to Grand Island Northwest and was the Fifth Seed in the afternoon tourney.  The Seward B Quiz Bowl Team defeated Aurora High, Fairbury High, and Crete High and lost to Grand Island Northwest.  They were the Sixth Seed in the afternoon tourney.

In the afternoon, Seward A defeated Crete A, then Holdrege B, and York A to reach the final tourney championship match against Holdrege A and they had a decisive win to capture the Conference Championship.  In the afternoon, the Seward B Quiz Bowl Team defeated Schuyler A and then upset the third seeded team of Grand Island Northwest, only to lose to Holdrege Team A.  They then moved to the consolation round and lost to York A, to be named Fourth Place in the Central Conference Quiz Bowl tourney for 2016!

The annual Central Conference Tourney high school quiz bowl teams included Aurora High- coached by Sarah Elger, Central City High-coached by Brandon Wright, Crete High-coached by Karen Drevo, Fairbury High-coached by Randy Simpson, Holdrege High-coached by Dennis Woodruff, Grand Island Northwest High-coached by George Mohr, Schuyler High-coached by John Sayer, York High-coached by Shelia Hubbard, and Seward High-coached by Clark Kolterman.  Columbus Lakeview High was the only school that declined to participate and decide to not be part of this academic Central Conference event.

Volunteer readers/judges for the Central Conference Quiz Bowl included Pat Ohlmann of Seward, Kathy Wilcox and Karen Drevo of Crete and George Mohr of Grand Island.  Volunteer timers and score keepers were hosted by Seward High and included Dylan Duer, Grace Landon, Wyatt Shafer, Adam Siebrandt, Timofey Nevzorov, Bailey Haas, Daniel Cahoon, Ethan Schutte, Elisha Hartman and Savannah Baldorzono.  Charles Gebhardt, the SHS Assistant AD, served as the Quiz Master, and prepared the tournament rounds and calculated the placements for the afternoon single elimination tourney.  Russ Wissing, SHS Assistant Principal, coordinated the registration and Clark Kolterman, SHS Quiz Bowl coach hosted the tournament play.

The Seward Teams are sponsored and funded by the School District of Seward-High Ability Learner Program-(HAL), as one of the official, designated HAL programs of the Seward School District.

Photos:

Photo One:  SHS Central Conference Academic Quiz Bowl Champions 2016- LR Evan Mettenbrink –Captain, Ben Galusha, Josh Hendrickson, Will Helmer and Will Brown! 

Photo two: Seward High Quiz Bowl Team B-Fourth Place Central Conference Quiz Bowl, L-R Evan Nottingham, Nolan Homp, Montana Hill-Captain and Ryan Wall. 

Photo three:  Action shot of the finals with Seward Team A vs Holdrege Team A in Central Conference Quiz Bowl in the Civic Center Auditorium, with Kathy Wilcox as the reader and Adam Siebrandt as the timer.