EVERETT — It was brains, not brawn, that scored students from Arlington a state trophy here Tuesday.
Competitors at the Hi-Q championship showed off their smarts during the quiz contest at Archbishop Murphy High School. Spectators packed the gym, cheering, clapping and laughing as contestants tried to answer challenging and often obscure questions.
The Archbishop Wildcats defended a three-year title run against the Arlington Eagles and the Monroe Bearcats — the same teams that Murphy defeated in the 2014 championship.
“It’s like that baseball saying, ‘It’s deja vu all over again,’ ” Hi-Q coordinator David Korkowski said.
But this time Arlington was victorious after the close, 42-question match.
“It was a nail-biter,” Korkowski said.
Competitors had 15 seconds ticking on a large, red-lighted clock and four chances to answer correctly before the other teams could buzz in with their responses.
The teammates exchanged high-fives for correctly answering tough questions. When they were perplexed, they offered random guesses.
The moderator, Jill Siano, read the questions with an appropriately erudite air, sipping from an old-fashioned china teacup between queries.
“We need more competitions that give praise to education,” said Siano, a retired Monroe teacher. “These kids work very, very hard.”
Students came prepared to answer questions in 13 subjects, including literature, sports, history, current events, government, Shakespeare, geometry and physics. They study on their own and practice as a team for months to prepare.
The teams at Tuesday’s contest bested seven others in three regular season matches and survived the semi-finals to make it to the championship. Scholars with expertise in the subjects write the questions.
Arlington will represent Washington in the national championship online April 16. Students in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Alabama also compete in Hi-Q.
Hi-Q is the nation’s oldest continuous quiz contest for high school students. The Scott Paper Co. started it in Pennsylvania in 1948. Arlington won when the company first sponsored a competition in Everett in 1976. Many groups kicked in money to keep Hi-Q going over the years.
After Everett Community College announced it was ending sponsorship of the program in 2012, Monroe students fought for it. The college eventually donated the contest equipment to the Monroe School District, which now helps cover the cost.
Cassandra Engvall, a senior from Monroe, was among students who fought to save Hi-Q because it was important to them.
“I don’t think it’s sunk in that it’s over yet,” she said after her last competition Tuesday.
In keeping with tradition, Engvall and other Monroe students brought “Star Wars” bobbleheads to the competition for luck.
Their counterparts from Arlington don’t do anything special or superstitious, junior Hannah Martian said. In fact, she said, the team believes that relying on luck charms could work against them.
“We just come prepared,” said Hannah, a two-year Hi-Q veteran. “Everybody works really hard.”
Arlington parent Kristi Neeleman surprised her daughter, Felix, by wearing a shirt to the contest that read: “Keep calm I’m a Hi-Q mom.”
Felix, a senior, said she appreciated the encouragement. She looked forward to recognition by peers at Arlington High when the team brought home the trophy.
“It’s definitely not as widely followed as sports, but people definitely know we’re here,” she said.
Jane Joselow and Ben Mendro have been coaching Arlington’s Hi-Q team for the past 24 years. Joselow, a retired teacher, said she was “hungry for the win” Tuesday because this season will be her last.
“I’m floating on air,” she said. “I wanted so badly to see what nationals were like.”
Amy Nile: 425-339-3192; anile@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @AmyNileReports.
Sample Hi-Q questions
1. Both Ireland and Scotland have embraced high-technology fields as a means to improving their economies. What is the nickname given to the area between Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland because of its California-like concentration of computer technology?
2. Logging destroyed much of a temperate rainforest biome that once stretched from Alaska to northern California. An important section of it was saved in 1994 when a timber company surrendered its logging rights. What is the name of the valley in British Columbia that was preserved?
3. A fire in 1723 seriously damaged one of two paintings by Rembrandt of an autopsy performed by a doctor surrounded by an audience. What is the last name of the doctor whose “Anatomy Lesson” was partially burned?
4. Modern chemistry uses carbon-12 as the basis for establishing atomic weights of elements. When pioneering chemist John Dalton did the first work to establish atomic weights of elements, what element did he use as his basis?
5. The Constitution requires that the president be “a natural born citizen.” The early presidents, however, were born as citizens of Great Britain. Name the president who was the first to be born as a citizen of the United States of America.
Answers
1. Silicon Glen
2. Kitlope Valley
3. Dr. Deyman
4. Hydrogen
5. Martin Van Buren
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