The Knowledge Bowl varsity season has begun. Finishing well in the first meet at Mountain Iron were (L-R) Mara MacDonell, Ben Seaton, Will Seaton, Sean MacDonell, Audrey Summers, Joey Chmelik, and Sarah Larsen.
The varsity Knowledge Bowl season has begun and Cook County scholars are back in the swing of things. Knowledge Bowl Coach April Wahlstrom said the questions are harder than ever, as they are geared toward an 11th and 12th grade curriculum, but the Cook County teams are ready.
Cook County has two teams. Up to five students may participate in the written round on a team and only four students may be on a team for each of the four oral rounds within a competition.
Cook County’s first meet was on Wednesday, January 18. Wahlstrom said, “Our students did great!”
Team 1—Mara MacDonell, Sean MacDonell, Ben Seaton, and Sarah Larsen—came in first by 24 points on this first day of competition. They started in first place after the written round and held on to their position through each oral round, gaining more points and getting further and further ahead of the other teams. “Wow!” said Wahlstrom.
Team 2— Audrey Summers, Joey Chmelik, and Will Seaton—started in second place after the written round, just two points behind our first place team. Wahlstrom said “This is our younger team and they ended a respectable 9th place at the end of this competition day which has 24 teams.”
Wahlstrom explained that Northeastern Minnesota is one of the larger sections in the state with a total of 83 teams in the ‘A’ (smaller school) division.
Currently, Cook County’s Team 1 is sitting in second place right behind a team from Marshall. Team 2 is tied for 16th place out of 83.
“These students have done a nice job and they have worked very hard practicing over their lunch time,” said Wahlstrom.
The next competitions were scheduled at Mt. Iron on Wed., Feb 8 and Tues., March 6. The top 25 teams, determined by the three competitions, will qualify for a tournament later in March, and from that specific competition the top three teams will qualify for the State Knowledge Bowl Tournament! “We are looking forward to an exciting season,” said Wahlstrom.
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