The Upper School packed into the seats of the Dining Hall Commons this Wednesday during lunch to watch Quiz Bowl, Spirit Week’s fourth major event.
Four student representatives from each grade competed in the Jeopardy-style event for the opportunity to earn their grade a maximum of 100 points. The six categories were Quakerism, Star Power, Periodically Speaking, World Cuisine Tour, Campaign Trail 101, and Novel Ideas.
Although Quiz Bowl is traditionally held on Tuesday of Spirit Week, this year’s Quiz Bowl was held on Wednesday. The Quiz Bowl buzzers went missing days earlier, forcing the Quiz Bowl to be postponed until new buzzers arrived.
Dean of Students Will Miller explained, “The [buzzers] were not in my office where they were supposed to be. There is no way to do [Quiz Bowl] without them, so I had to rush order a new set to come in and they came in last night. That is why I had to swap Quiz Bowl [to Wednesday] with Tug [on Tuesday].”
The freshman class kicked off Quiz Bowl after choosing Campaign Trail 101 as the first category. The Seniors quickly answered the first question and earned 100 points, being the first grade to garner points for their team.
After the senior class swept the first two questions, the junior class buzzed in first in an attempt to get on the scoreboard. However, after failing to phrase their answer correctly in the question format, as the rules had required, the juniors did not lose or gain any points and the seniors stole the question instead, earning even more points to further their lead.
The freshmen were the first to gain negative points on the scoreboard after incorrectly answering a clue in the category of Star Power.
However, shortly after answering, Quiz Bowl host Mary Anne Henderson and Miller were notified by the freshman class about Bluetooth issues with the buzzers, causing the receiving control system to not detect when multiple grades’ buzzers were being hit. Promptly, Henderson and Miller were able to resolve the issue by resetting all buzzers and moving the freshmen table closer so the Bluetooth worked better. They also moved the control system to a central location.
Miller explained, “We made the change from moving the transmitter to the center [which] was what resolved [the problem]. Last year that wasn’t an issue, but this year maybe the tables were spread out a little bit more [as] opposed to last year.”
Freshman class Quiz Bowl representative Yuri Wallace ’28, described her disappointment with the buzzers.
“Our buzzer was not working at all. I don’t think the game was inherently unfair, but I do think [Quiz Bowl] did become unfair with the buzzers not working,” she explained.
Ali Sabir agreed with Wallace and said, “I think the buzzers were a serious issue. I would have liked it if, once we discovered that the buzzers were broken … we would push Quiz Bowl to Friday lunch because it is an open period, but I don’t blame Miller or any of the adults for the [issues].”
As Quiz Bowl progressed, the senior class carried their lead, racking up 4000 points by the end of the regular clue category rounds before the Final Jeopardy.
The sophomores, which steadily made their way to second place, collected a total of 800 points by the end of the normal stage of Quiz Bowl, and the freshmen stayed in 3rd place with a total of 400 points before the final clue. The juniors, after answering another clue without the correct phrasing before their answer, were at -400 points by the end and were unable to participate in the final round.
Regarding the juniors’ lost points due to incorrect phrasing of answers, Sabir stated, “I take full responsibility for forgetting to mention ‘what is’ at the beginning of the question. There are rules that have to be followed and Miller had to make a judgment call.”
The sophomores and freshmen answered Quiz Bowl’s Final Jeopardy clue regarding MLK’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech correctly, leaving the sophomore class in second place with 1000 points and the freshman class in third place with 800 points. Due to a slideshow mistake showing the answer on the screen, Matthew Diaz ’28 saw the answer to the “Final Jeopardy” question and stepped out of Quiz Bowl to avoid dishonesty in the ninth grade’s answer beforehand.
Despite the senior class incorrectly answering the question, the twelfth grade still came out victorious with a grand total of 3999 points, and the juniors rounded out the group in fourth place with -400 points.
Following the events of Quiz Bowl, senior Quizbowl team member Anna Thompson ’25 was thrilled with the performance of the senior class.
Thompson said, “I feel amazing. I think I did really well on the buzzer, we had a really good team, and we knew our bases well.”
The sophomores have now moved up to third place overall after the events of Quiz Bowl, taking over the freshmen’s previous position.
Aiden Eickhoff ’27 was satisfied with his role in Quiz Bowl today and said, “We finished in second place, which means the [sophomores] should all feel good.”
