Beavercreek wins first national Quiz Bowl championship

A day before a devastating tornado damaged Beavercreek houses and businesses, Beavercreek High School students wrapped up a win in a national academic event.

Beavercreek took home the nation’s top spot at the Memorial Day weekend National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT) Quiz Bowl in Atlanta.

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The event drew 336 high school teams from across the United States from May 24-May 26 to compete in what has been referred to as the “Super Bowl of the mind.”

Quiz Bowl is a fast-paced academic activity for teams of four students who test their knowledge on a variety of topics. Some of these categories include: science, math, history, literature, mythology, geography, social science, current events, sports and pop culture.

The Beavercreek team tied for fifth place in the 2018 National Championship and finished the 2019 season with a record of 15-1.

“This national title is the first one ever for any school in Ohio in the history of the Quiz Bowl program. Our students worked very hard” Academic Team Coach Ellen Spence said.

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The members who made up the championship team included: Abby Cohen (10th grade), Tegan Kapadia (10th grade), Hari Parameswaran (12th grade) and Tiffany Zhou (10th grade).

Parameswaran was the third-best scoring player in the nation, with an average of 108.93 points per game. Parameswaran was also the NAQT player of the week the week of April 13.

“Upon returning home, one of the students had her home damaged by three trees and is missing a portion of her roof due to the Memorial Day tornadoes,” Spence said. “But she hasn’t let that get in the way of her major accomplishment and all of its glory!”

Two other Dayton-area schools sent some of the nation’s best students to the competition, based on individual stats.

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Those students were John John Groger, an 11th grader from Miami Valley High School, and Samantha Street, a 10th grader from Northmont High School. Groger placed fifth overall and Street was the third-highest scoring sophomore in the country.

This year’s NAQT Quiz Bowl winners were:

1st place, Beavercreek High School (Beavercreek, Ohio)

2nd place, University Lab High School (Urbana, Illinois)

3rd place, Chattahoochee High School (Johns Creek, Georgia)

4th place, Adlai E. Stevenson High School (Lincolnshire, Illinois)

The Beavercreek team will now look forward to next year as they try to bring the national title home two years in a row.

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