Quiz Bowl team advances to state competition
By Vaughn Lenard
The 2024 Sacred Heart Quiz Bowl team members, (front row, from left) Ethan Neddenriep, Clayton Keithley, Connor Nelson, Vaughn Lenard, Leila Fredrick, Henry Rottinghaus, Patrick Froeschl, Kyle Fredrick, (middle row) Parker Hoffman, Hayden Clow, Cole Schawang, Alex Madsen, (top row) Eli Geisendorf, Cooper Knobbe, and Mason Goltz, celebrate placing second at the Pioneer Conference Quiz Bowl competition.
“What 20th century British Prime Minister coined the phrase “Iron Curtain?” “What American author wrote the novel “Moby Dick?” These are a few examples of questions that are common for the Sacred Heart Quiz Bowl team to see at competition.
On March 13 the Sacred Heart Quiz Bowl kicked off their season at the Pioneer Conference Quiz bowl meet in Friend. In pool play Sacred Heart A went 6-0, while Sacred Heart B went 4-2, meaning that both teams advanced to the gold bracket. During the first round of the tournament both teams cruised to victory. This set up a Sacred Heart A versus Sacred Heart B match to see who would go to the gold bracket championship. Sacred Heart B started off the match with a lead, but in the end fell just short of beating team A. Sacred Heart B then played Sterling to advance to the third-place match but fell short. Sacred Heart A played Exeter-Milligan in the championship round but were unable to pull ahead and win.
The next day Sacred Heart Team A traveled up to Peru for the ESU4 Quiz Bowl tournament. The top two teams would advance to the state tournament in Hastings. In pool play the team went 2-2 defeating HTRS and Syracuse but fell to Sterling and Nebraska City Lourdes. In the first round of the tournament the team faced off against JCC and claimed an easy victory. In the second round Sacred Heart narrowly defeated Auburn. In the third round of the tournament Sacred Heart went up again Falls City Public, defeating them in a nail-biter after pulling ahead and securing the win in the final question.
In the championship round, Sacred Heart faced off against Lourdes, but fell just short. Despite the second-place finish, Sacred Heart was guaranteed a spot in the state tournament for the second time in school history. “It was very cool to be able to qualify for the state championship tournament,” senior Leila Frederick said. “It was awesome to qualify for state for the second time in school history my senior year.”
On March 27, the Sacred Heart Quiz Bowl team traveled to Lewiston for the MUDECAS Quiz bowl competition. During pool play Sacred Heart A went 6-1, falling short only to Meridian, the eventual champions, in an extremely close match. This was enough for Sacred Heart A to advance to the gold bracket.
During the first round Sacred Heart easily defeated Meridian In the semi-final round Sacred Heart A was defeated by Johnson Brock, sending Sacred Heart to the third-place match. In the third-place round, Sacred Heart defeated Freeman to earn the third place at the MUDECAS tournament.
Seniors Vaughn Lenard, Leila Frederick, juniors Patrick Froeschl, Cole Schawang, Henry Rottinghaus, Connor Nelson, Ethan Neddenriep, Clayton Keithley, and freshman Parker Hoffman will compete in the ESU4 State Quiz Bowl competition on April 24 in Hastings, NE.
