Lexington high school quiz bowl teams compete for national title

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – School may be over in Fayette county, but competition and learning are not.

Next weekend, two teams from Dunbar High School in Lexington qualified and will compete in the National Academic Quiz Tournament. It’s referred to as the “Super bowl of the mind.”

“We’ve been reviewing questions from previous national championships and they are difficult,” said Rebecca Goff, the team’s advisor.

Each student specializes in one of four topics, science, social studies, literature, and arts. All team members will keep up with current events and pop culture.

“The study guide for the literature student is anything ever written ever in the history of ever from any country ever,” said Goff.

The students have been practicing two days a week for the entire school year and studying on their own.

The team captain, Ayush Tibrewal, said both the “A” and “B” teams are strong and very evenly matched.

“In the tournament that we qualified the two teams for we actually got first and second,” said Tibrewal. “In the final match between the two teams it went down literally to the last question and the “A” team managed to get it, but that’s how close it is.”

Last year, covid canceled the national competition.

“Last year we put a bunch of our hard work into getting to compete at nationals and then hearing that it got canceled was really detrimental to us,” said Alex Stumbur, team member.

This year’s competition will be all online. The teams will be competing against the top teams across the nation and even from South Korea.

“I feel like this year with the hard work that we have put in we’re super excited to show it off to other teams,” said Stumbur.

The teams will be competing against the top teams across the nation and even from South Korea.