The Scholar Bowl Team took third place overall at their first meet of the semester at St. Joseph Central High School Jan 13.

“It was really close in [the] last round, senior Karolina Rooney said. “But, towards the end, we began getting excited as we realized that we would get third place.”

The tournament was composed of 20 varsity high school teams. But the team, coached by English teachers Melissa Wilcox and Shawn Watts, only faced eight in the course of 60-minute rounds. The team represented by seniors Gillian Cruz, Karolina Rooney, Emily Bello and Julianna Alaman sailed through the competition with six wins and two losses.

“It was a strong group,” Watts said. “Everyone had an area where they were good at.”

Even though some of the teams they were facing were composed of more people than them, the four-person team held their own in order to receive the third place achievement. However, the team was not the only winner of the night as Cruz placed sixth individually in the contest.

“Knowing we went through so many rounds and how long the day was,” Cruz said, “it was great to come home with a win.”

The meet was composed of trivia questions from multiple categories including history, math, science, literature and pop culture. Every member of the team answered multiple questions making it a complete team effort.

“I think every time we have a practice, every time we go to a tournament, people’s confidence is built just from hearing questions they didn’t know they knew,” Watts said.

Scholar Bowl meets every Wednesday and Thursday in Wilcox’s classroom for any students that are interested in competing in any upcoming competitions.

“It’s just trivia,” Cruz said. “If you like Jeopardy or Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, then you would probably like Scholar Bowl.”