-
Community
ROSEMONT, Illinois -- On the weekend of April 27, West Iron County Middle and High School joined 142 of the top quiz bowl teams from small public high schools at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare Chicago for the 2024 Small School National Championship Tournament to determine who was the best.
WIC Middle and High School finished in fourth place in the Traditional Public Schools Division, the best performance by any team from Michigan at the 2024 Small School National Championship Tournament (Traditional Public Schools Division). They also finished first among the very small Schools teams.
Quiz bowl is a competitive, academic, interscholastic 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 matches feature a blend of individual competition and team collaboration, since no individual player is likely to be an expert in all subject areas. Participation in quiz bowl both reinforces lessons from the classroom and encourages players to develop new intellectual interests.
The team, in the Traditional Public Schools Division, consisted of Rachel Fanous, Abigail Farley, Rocky Farley and Jayden McWethy. The team was coached by Joel Vanlanen.
West Iron County was one of seven Michigan teams competing at the national championship.
WIC began the preliminary rounds with a 10-game winning streak, in which they defeated Ruidoso from New Mexico; Chariton from Iowa; Coalgate from Oklahoma; Southern Boone from Ashland, Missouri; Clopton from Clarksville, Missouri; South Side from Hookstown, Pennsylvania; Russell A from Kentucky; Evansville A from Wisconsin; Triopia from Concord, Illinois; and Cloverleaf from Lodi, Ohio. They finished the preliminary rounds with a 10-0 record, which qualified them for the playoffs.
West Iron County spent four playoff games on the brink of elimination. They defeated Pandora-Gilboa from Ohio; Russell A from Kentucky; and the eventual champions, Hastings from Hastings-on-Hudson, New York before falling to Hallsville from Missouri, ending their shot at the title.
Rachel Fanous was honored as an All-Star for correctly answering 130 tossup questions -- 52 of them for “power,” that is, so early as to earn extra points -- in the preliminary rounds. She was also awarded MVP.
The Traditional Public Schools Division champion was Hastings High School from Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. The Open Division champion was the A team from St. Mark’s School of Texas from Dallas, Texas.
The 2024 Small School National Championship Tournament field featured 88 teams from 24 states.