Scholastic Bowl

One of Urbana High School’s newest teams, Scholastic Bowl, got off to a successful start, after Varsity placed seventh and JV came in first at the Big 12 Tournament. The meet was held Saturday, December 12 at Cenntennial High School in Champaign. Other schools that attended the tournament included MacAurther, Cenntennial, Mattoon, Central, Bloomington and Normal West. It was Urbana’s first tournament, since the club was just established this year. Matthew Buckles advises the team, but was sick for the meet, so Matt Goerss stepped in as adviser.

Varsity got off to a bit of a rough start, losing to Normal West by twenty points. However, the team made a comeback in the next game, by winning to MacArthur. They continued winning on and off for the rest of the competition. Their biggest win was against Bloomington, who had won the previous year’s tournament and would later come in second at this year’s competition. They continued on to get fourth place in their pool and seventh overall.

Seven students played on Varsity’s team; Senior Gaby Chavez, Senior Katarina Marjanovic, Senior Carrie Cuno, Senior Jordan Harrier, Senior Fumi Takazawa and Junior Daniel Downie.  Chavez, who is also Varsity’s team captain, said “I think that we did really well for it being our first year. We got ranked above some teams that had been doing scholastic bowl for a while, so I’m really happy that we won seventh place. We don’t have all the experience that all the other teams had, but by attending the tournament and by having games with other schools we learn to work better under pressure and we learn skills that will be helpful to us later on.”

Cuno sited another reason the team did so well at one of their first matches. “I also think a really important thing that we have is spirit, which sets us apart from at least Mattoon and Bloomington, and that we have a lot of fun, which is the most important thing,” she said.

The JV Team’s first competitors were MacArthur, and they got off to an almost identical start as Varsity, losing by 20 points. The next game was a close one, against Bloomington, in which the team lost by a single point. However, the team then picked up two wins against the Cenntennial Hybrid and Mattoon. JV soon learned about a mistake that would change fate. A math error had been made in the match versing Bloomington, which meant the JV would play their first playoff game against Cenntennial. They were able to win the game against Cenntennial, which meant that their next game would be the final playoff against MacArthur.

Earlier that day the JV team had lost to MacArthur by 20 points. This game, however, turned out much differently. JV won the team by a substantial amount, making them the Big 12 Champions.

Seven members played for the JV team, Sophomore Taskin Sehitoglu, team captain, Sophomore Umberto Ravaioli, Sophomore Ray Wu, Sophomore D’Mario Turner, Sophomore Glenna Hartman, Sophomore Logan Peal and Sophomore Gwen Childers. Three members of the team played for a hybrid team with Mattoon. This team’s members were Sophomore Zelda Galewsky, Freshman Andreas Ruiz and Freshman Emily Durkin.

The team then attended the closing ceremony, where the JV team was awarded a trophy and medals for being Big 12 Champions. JV team member Umberto Ravaioli was also awarded for having the most correctly answered toss up questions. “I would say that it was the best feeling ever. We came into the tournament the absolute underdog wondering if we would win a single match. Despite our slow start, something happened and we started winning. Every match I thought was going to be our last, but we just stood our ground and never gave up. I don’t really know how it happened, but before I knew it we were Big 12 Conference Champions and I was the top JV scorer,” Ravaioli said.

Sehitoglu said “We were all wanted to do well, not only because we wanted to win, but we felt like we had something to prove.  Scholastic bowl is quite an obscure activity, so our performance last Saturday was essentially ‘do or die’ on how people at our school were going to perceive the club.”

Both teams have a meet next month with Tuscola and it’s not to late to join. “I may make scholastic bowl sound really serious, but in reality, it’s quite relaxed.  A good portion of meet days involve hanging out and joking around,” Sehitoglu said.