By Austin Brown, news editor
On Jan. 7, the Saegertown Hi-Q team qualified for the 2017 National History Bowl Championships which will be held on April 21-23 in Arlington, VA and Washington, DC. Seniors Sydney Kightlinger, Dustin Bierman, and Dan Smith, junior Erik Murphy and sophomore Glenn Ferry accomplished this feat at the Western Pennsylvania History Bee and Bowl which was held at South Side High School. This was the first time a Saegertown team has qualified for Nationals. “It is a successful result from a small school,” said Murphy. In order to qualify for Nationals, any team must have a .500 record or above in the prelims or a single playoff win can also qualify a team for Nationals.
“It’s significant because of the competitive nature the contestants bring to the competition,” said Murphy. Though they do not intend to travel to the event in April, it’s an impressive accomplishment for any team. “I was thrilled that we won our first playoff against South Side High School which allowed us to qualify for the National tournament, and we held our own in a very competitive field,” said Hi-Q coach Mrs. Stacey Hetrick. Overall, their record for the day was 4-4. Other schools in the competition included Winchester-Thurston, Norwin, South Side, Taylor Allderdice, and Alagar Homeschool.
In History Bee, an individual competition, Sydney Kightlinger’s sixteen total questions answered notched her a thirteenth place finish and qualified her for the National History Bee for the second year in a row. “Its really nice. I wasn’t anticipating qualifying because there were more schools there this year. Since we are such a small school, it shows me that I’m not just a big fish in a small pond, and that I am able to compete with others,” said Kightlinger.
For more information on the National History Bee & Bowl visit: http://www.historybowl.com/. The Hi-Q team will be in action again on Feb. 11 at the Tartan Invitational Quiz Bowl at Carnegie Mellon University. This in NAQT (National Academic Quiz Teams) tournament. You can check out sample questions at https://www.naqt.com.