On the Saturday of November 14, Oratory Prep’s very own Quiz Bowl team pulled off two victories against opposing schools. While I personally was not present to witness this greatness, our team of Ryan Bergh Thies, Brian Kelly, Jaden Medina, and Nicholas Scantlebury certainly showed the other teams what we are made of. While OP won both matches, the margin of the two victories varied vastly.

An Overwhelming Victory…

Our octo-final opponent was a school named Paramus. One doesn’t need to be mean-spirited to note how OP cleared those points out to an almost-unfair extent. The final score of this round was 370-60. While Oratory has been in similar positions before on both sides of the equation, I’m sure it was a real confidence-booster to grab such a clean-cut win. With that victory, Oratory advanced to the quarter-finals.

And A Close Call. 

In the match’s second round, the competition would come down as close to the wire as possible. Only by a substantial last-minute point jump and a clinched tie-breaker question was Oratory able to eke out a success. After tying with us in the first round, our opponent Hewlett held a significant lead near the end of the final round due to their success in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. The score was 200-240, requiring Oratory to get both of the remaining questions correct. Thanks to the way that the round’s scoring functions, the team couldn’t wait for the easy clues to be read off at the end, either. The fourth section of a quiz bowl round awards more points for quick answers during the harder part of the clue, and luckily Brian knew his stuff about King Solomon. BK aced the answer, crucially bringing us back into play from being down 40 points on the second-to-last question in the round. Club captain Ryan BerghThies answered the final question (Little Rock, Arkansas) for ten points, saving the team from a narrow loss but not winning the game just yet. In the end, the match came down to a tie-breaker question. Nicholas Scantlebury flexed his art history knowledge and correctly answered with the American painter James Pollock, winning the game for Oratory. With a 250-240 point split, however, the win came far too close for comfort. Still, the victory was worth celebrating. According to Captain Ryan BerghThies, “The last quarter was a great example of History Bowl at its finest and the entire team performed exceptionally.” Thanks to the four’s skills, OP’s Quiz Bowl squad will advance to the semi-finals and hopefully the finals beyond that. Stay tuned!

Special thanks to RBT for giving me his recap and analysis of the matches.