HS Quiz Bowl team remains state champs

By Lucia Gellert ‘27 & Mason Lack ‘26

On Saturday, March 1 the USN Quiz Bowl team won its third consecutive state shampionship. The team invests a large amount of time studying for competitions all year round, and these last few weeks of February have seen them working particularly hard in preparation. The tournament was hosted at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville. As we have taken first place as State Champions for the past two years, we returned this year to defend our position, but this time, with a twist.

USN A and B have been and continue to be dominant. The A team is 18th in the nation, and we boast the highest-ranked B team. Unfortunately, the competition only allowed one team from each school. To circumvent this, we arrived with a 10-person team: Ophelia Cherry-Pulay ‘25, Penelope Graham ‘25, Daniel Guo ‘25, Rohan Ramachandran ‘25, Evan Giles ‘26, Jackson Green ‘26, Clover Horwitz ‘26, Mason Lack ‘26, Lucia Gellert ‘27, and Liam Mooney ‘28.

Throughout the day, we rotated everyone between matches to ensure all players played.

On that fateful day in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday, a bus departed from USN and headed off to Tennessee Tech. We played five rounds in the morning, then three more rounds before the final two playoff games. The morning went smoothly, with decisive victories in almost every game. The one exception was a nail-biter against Lausanne Collegiate, in which Daniel Guo ‘25 saved the day on the very last question. Several spectators in the audience, including our coach Dr. Eric Mukherjee, literally jumped for joy.

After a rejuvenating Panera lunch, the team continued its streak with victories over Collierville, Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences, and Cookeville. After three playoff victories, the team earned the right to play against Gallatin in the finals. The format of this matchup was slightly different from that of other competitions; rather than a one-round final, this would be the best two out of three.

After some deliberation, it was decided that the A team would play the first game, securing a win right off the bat, then in the second game, the current B team would get their shot at winning, with Dr. Mukherjee making it clear that the A team would not be there to bail them out. The A team’s victory was swift in the first game. In the second, the hard-working B team stood tall on their own, clinching the game by a significant margin. USN not only won a state championship, they won a state championship over two teams worth of players contributing - a feat that has never been achieved in Tennessee quiz bowl history.

After returning to USN with the trophy in tow, the team ate dinner at Bombay Palace (highly recommended) to debrief and celebrate.

We’d like to thank all of the players, coaches, parents, readers, tournament directors, and bus drivers involved in the Quiz Bowl team's work. Without your support, the team's accomplishments during this competition and overall success would not have been possible.