Cowley Quiz Bowl teams place at nationals

The Cowley College collegiate quiz bowl teams capped an impressive year by having both teams place at the Quiz Bowl nationals in Rosemont, Illinois.

The Cowley Quiz Bowl teams accomplished many firsts this year. This marked the first year since 2006 to bring two teams to nationals, first time to beat Redlands Community College at nationals, first year for a Cowley team to place as high as eighth at nationals, first to have an individual student (Zane Hubble) place in the top-10 out of 119 players and the first time to play nationals in person since 2020, when the pandemic hit.

“It is remarkable that our team qualified as number 16 out of 24 teams and played well enough on Friday night at prelims to accelerate to level eight and place us in the top pool of teams we played on Saturday,” Cowley Quiz Bowl coach Dianne Flickinger said. “We ended up playing the top seven teams and beat seventh ranked State College-Manatee 240-110, even with their No. 1 player on their team. I thought this was their best moment because our team didn’t realize who they were up against.”

Cowley’s A-team demonstrated teamwork consistently throughout the competition by each answering tossups to earn bonus questions, with Zane Hubble answering 48 tossups, Elijah Robinson 10, Shaybree Hanes three, and Justin Aggson 13.

“Being with the quiz bowl club allowed me to do something I had never done before; it was a completely new and amazing experience,” Aggson said.

During bonus questions, Shaybree Hanes excelled at listening to the conversation between the team and answering many bonuses correctly. Shaybree’s best moment was when she answered a tossup against the number 1 team – Tallahassee. A great moment for Zane Hubble was when he protested a question that was the moderator’s fault.  Zane had the correct answer, but the moderator had not reviewed the other acceptable answers. The result was that the opposing team lost 30 points, and Cowley gained 20 points.

Cowley B ended up in 23rd place, but they had to go up against the top four of the top 11 teams  along with the No. 21-ranked team in the prelims.

“It was a difficult evening, but they did end up winning two games on Saturday against Kansas teams Garden City and Seward County,” Flickinger said. “This B team is entirely first year college students, so next year, they will be strong and have the experience to take them further.”

Spencer MacLaughlin answered 19 questions, Katya Crow, 14, and Danny Ball (captain) answered 10 tossups in 11 games.

“This entire trip was a dream come true and wonderful experience with friends for several students,” Flickinger said.

Rama Peroo | Director of Institutional Communication
Cowley College
125 S. 2nd Street
Arkansas City, KS 67005
rama.peroo@cowley.edu