Most students hate quizzes. Others, like a trio from the Belmont High School Quiz Bowl club, fly out to Rosemont, Illinois, to compete in quizzes.
Belmont High School sophomores Peter Mahowald and Ruizhao Sun and junior Andrew Gao competed in the National Academic Quiz Tournaments’ (NAQT) Individual Player National Championship on April 12, testing their knowledge of science, math, history, literature, mythology, social science, popular culture, and more.
In quiz bowl competitions, students compete head-to-head individually or in teams to answer questions on a range of topics. According to NAQT, “the defining feature of quiz bowl is the use of a ‘buzzer system’ that lets players interrupt the reading of a question when they know the answer.”
Each Belmont student competed individually against around 300 other competitors. All three placed in the top third of the competition: Mahowald 97th, Gao 37th and Sun 31st.
“I think we all had a lot of fun. It was a great experience,” Sun said. It was Sun’s and Mahowald’s first time competing individually at the national event.This was Gao’s fifth time in this competition; last year, he took home 16th place.
“It’s not really the ranking that matters; in the end, it’s just a number out of 300. What I was happy about yesterday was my stats, the points I scored, and how I felt playing the tournament. I felt like it improved,” Gao said.
All three students began competing in quiz bowls in middle school. Gao’s older sibling, Cindy, competed in quiz competitions as well, and though they never competed together, Gao credits them with sparking his love for the game.
“They really got me into this game, and it quickly became more than just a game, obviously,” Gao laughed.
A year behind Gao in school, Sun and Mahowald both enjoyed quiz competitions but said they didn’t really start to dig into them until they reached high school. In their freshman year, Sun and Mahowald competed together at a national competition as Belmont’s “B” team, where they eventually placed higher than the school’s “A” team.
Outside of traveling to competitions or competing in virtual quiz bowls, the club also hosts four quiz competitions a year — about half of the competitions in all of Massachusetts. While most of the teams competing are local to New England, others from around the country have traveled to take part as well.
Mahowald said that while competing wasn’t necessarily new to him, the individual competition initially seemed daunting.
“I had viewed this as something very intimidating,” he said. “It was 300 people, and I know maybe 20 of them, but it turns out everyone was really nice. I really enjoyed talking to people in the games and outside of the games.”
Whether they were seeing friends from other competitions or meeting new people with the same love for academics as them, the trio said the whirlwind competition was more than just a series of questions.
“I am [grateful] for the whole community and for all the players,” Gao said. “…I think the community aspect is a really underrated part of the experience.”
