Fayetteville Students Win National Competition

Students from Woodland Junior High School are returning home this week with a first-place prize.

The school's Quiz Bowl team won first place at the Junior Nationals Academic Championship in Chicago over the weekend, according to a news release from the Fayetteville School District. The team of nine students competed against 25 other teams.

Team members competed earlier in the year at a regional competition and won first place, allowing them to qualify for the national competition, said Ryan Kim, a ninth-grader on the team. He said he and his team members were shocked when they learned they won. He called the experience "unbelievable."

The students practiced after school two times every week since September, said Lindsey Asbury, one of two coaches. They spent 2 1/2 hours practicing together each week, and spent additional time studying at home. Each team member had a focus area, such as history or math. They practiced at least 500 questions before last weekend's competition.

The competition is broken into four quarters with four students participating in each section, Asbury said. She said the competition is comparable to the television game show "Jeopardy!"

Ryan said his favorite parts of the trip were getting to work with the team and coaches, and visiting local tourist sites. The students visited various museums, a planetarium and the Willis Tower, Asbury said. The team also visited Fermilab, a physics laboratory, where they spoke with a particle physicist.

The team at Woodland Junior High has competed for at least six years, but this was the first time the team qualified for the national competition, Asbury said. Winning at nationals automatically qualifies the team to compete in the national competition next year. She said they hope to win next year as well.

NW News on 06/10/2014

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