By Mazie Boyd
The Elementary Quiz Bowl team has had a great start to their season. The team, consisting of sixth graders Caleb Bartels, Maverick Parr, and Kira Sidlo, and fifth graders Caleb Hemberger, Rylan Klein, Emma Thomas, Owen Kral, and Trigg Serna, has participated in three meets before the ESU 9 meet, where they only lost two matches total. At the Red Cloud meet, they went undefeated.
On February 3, the Elementary Quiz Bowl team went to the ESU 9 Quiz Bowl tournament. The tournament was held at North Shore church in Hastings. Thirty-nine teams were competing. They lost their first match to St. Michael’s team, but they were able to fight their way through the losers’ bracket. They eventually lost to Aurora, but won fourth place for that day. The two teams that Silver Lake lost to went on to claim first and second place in the tournament. The team had many very exciting matches throughout the day, and their coach was very proud of the way they had performed.
The next day, the High School Quiz Bowl team also went to North Shore for the ESU 9 tournament. They won their first match against St. Cecilia, but then lost by five points to Doniphan-Trumbull. In the consolation bracket, the team played Sutton and once again lost by five points. Coach Behmer said, “I was excited to get one win under our belts in the first round. It’s always fun to see the team work together during the bonus questions. This is by far the biggest meet we’ve been to, so the competition is more than we’ve seen before. I was proud of how they performed.”
Finally, on February 5, the Junior High Quiz Bowl team attended the same tournament at North Shore. Their first match was played against Superior. It was a very back-and-forth match, and the score was very close in the end. The second match of the day was played against Adams Central. At the beginning of the match, Adam’s Central was winning by thirty points. Even though Silver Lake was losing, they were able to claw their way back to tie the match. But they just lost by a few points in the end. Their coach shared, “The day didn’t go as planned, with losing our first two matches. However, I am extremely proud of the fight the team put up against both opponents. We were down quite a bit against Adams Central in the final match, and they fought back to tie it up. This team has shown how determined they are.”