Seward High Places Fourth in State Literature Quiz Bowl

October 10, 2015

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The Seward High Quiz Bowl Team placed Fourth in the State Literature Quiz Bowl tourney, hosted by the Nebraska English Teachers Association-the “Nebraska English Language Arts Council” (NELAC), an official affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) held on Thursday, October 1, 2015 at the Seward Civic Center, in conjunction with the Concordia University Plum Creek Children’s Literacy Festival.  Twenty eight teams from across Nebraska competed in the contest.  The successful SHS Quiz Bowl members included Megan Runyan, Emma Orwen, Nate Ketner, Will Brown, Ben Galusha and Montana Hill. 

Winning the tourney, in the large school division was Bellevue East High School, followed by Gretna High-Second, Ralston High-Third and Seward Fourth!  In the small school division, Fullerton High-Team B won the tourney, followed by Fillmore Central, Hampton High and Howells/Dodge.

The teams competed in a round robin event in the morning, with each team playing three/or more rounds in a warm up series, to determine placement in the afternoon, based on the wins and losses in the morning a points generated.  Each match featured 40 questions that were literature based and at the high school level of knowledge.

Seward High was allowed two teams in the contest. The other SHS Quiz Bowl team included Sydney Erickson, Grace Orwen, Elise Bohning, Jake Marshall and Montana Hill!   Both teams are coached by Clark Kolterman.

Serving as volunteer readers for the tourney were Brad Nord of Gretna, Dave Bossman of Bellevue, Traci Sindelar of Howells, Cathi McMurtry of Oakland, Sheila Lauby of Geneva, Stephanie Shearer of Arapahoe-a Concordia University-Seward senior and Nancy Guenther of Oakland.  Clark Kolterman of Seward served as the event volunteer chair for NELAC and Charles Gebhardt served as the Quiz Bowl Master-coordinating the placements and bracketing for the tourney.  Seward High served as the host school for the event.

Volunteer timers for the event included Jayden Germer, Nolan Homp, Wyatt Shafer, Bryson Schluckebier, Caleb Martin, Kiernan Baker, Jack Yelden, Clint Koetter, Chase Prochnow, Brock Maloy, Tim Nevzorov and Thomas Ringler.

Schools participating in the statewide Literature Tourney were Bellevue East, Ralston, Gretna, Seward, York, Milford, Kearney Catholic, Fillmore Central, Cross County of Stromsburg, Howells/Dodge, Fullerton, Friend, Osceola, McCool Junction, Exeter/Milligan, Oakland/Craig and Hampton.  A total of twenty eight teams participated in the daylong event, fielding questions centered on literature throughout the day.

The Seward Teams were sponsored by the School District of Seward High Ability Learner Program (HAL).