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SHELBY TOWNSHIP — Students from the Gene L. Klida Utica Academy for International Studies joined 319 of the top high school quiz bowl teams at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis for the 2024 High School National Championship Tournament to determine who was the best May 25.
Quiz bowl is a competitive academic activity for teams of four students. Quiz bowl teams use buzzers to answer questions about science, math, history, literature, mythology, geography, social science, current events, sports and popular culture.
The Gene L. Klida Utica Academy for International Studies team consisted of Tony Anderson, Benjamin Edmunds, Yousif Hadoo, Colin Mondoux and Brendan Pawlicki. The team was coached by Zach Crossen and William Dobbie.
Crossen said the team put in a lot of work to make it so far in the competition.
“To a casual observer, there’s really no trick to quiz bowl aside from knowing things, but there’s a lot of work that goes into success. I’ve never worked with a nicer, harder working team,” he said.
Utica Academy was one of 17 Michigan teams competing at the national championship.
At the tournament, Utica Academy began with a four-game winning streak in which it defeated Fairview from Boulder, Colorado; Maggie Walker Governor’s School B from Richmond, Virginia; Midtown from Atlanta, Georgia; and Amador Valley from Pleasanton, California. Utica Academy finished the preliminary rounds with a 7-3 record, which qualified it for the playoffs.
Utica Academy suffered a narrow loss to Winston Churchill from Potomac, Maryland, 330-310 during round 16 and defeated Johns Creek B from Georgia by the narrow margin of 355-340 during round 22.
Unfortunately, Utica Academy lost to Mission San Jose from Fremont, California, ending the team’s shot at the title.
Edmunds was honored as a Sophomore Rising Star for correctly answering 62 tossup questions — 15 of them for power, which meant he answered early enough during the reading of the question to earn extra points — in the preliminary rounds.
Gene L. Klida Utica Academy for International Studies finished in 49th place.
The tournament champion was the A team from Barrington High School, of Barrington, Illinois.
The 2024 High School National Championship Tournament’s field featured 320 teams from 38 states, the District of Columbia and China.
Dobbie said this year’s Utica Academy team had high expectations going into the season, and the team, led by senior captain Pawlicki, surpassed all the expectations as it finished the regular season in the Macomb Area Conference league undefeated and won the Class B Michigan state championship.
“Returning team members will begin summer practices next week to bring even more success next year,” Dobbie said.
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