Redwood wins quiz bowl again

FAST THINKERS SHOW CERTIFICATES- These Redwood Middle School students placed first in a recent statewide competition. Front row, from left: Jason Gardiner, Alex Karukas, Grace Chang, Alex Ehlinger and Jingy Li. Back row: coach Marilyn Zick, Noah Fields, Sullivan Wall, Adam Ginell, Alex Barr and principal Lou Lichtl. Not pictured: Alex Cauchon and Evan Wang. For the 11th year in a row Redwood Middle School placed first in the statewide Thinking Cap Quiz Bowl academic competition.

This year the seventh-grade team placed first in its category with a score of 1,153, more than 200 points higher than the secondplace team.

Competitors answered 100 questions in a computer-based quiz format that tested knowledge, cooperation, accuracy and speed on a variety of subjects such as history, math, science, literature, general information and fun trivia. Teams were given two chances to answer correctly and were given points based on speed and accuracy.

Coach Marilyn Zick has coached Redwood teams for 11 years and stresses the importance of teamwork. The team practiced during lunchtime for several weeks.

The school's 10-member team included Alex Barr, Alex Cauchon, Grace Chang, Alex Ehlinger, Noah Fields, Jason Gardiner, Adam Ginell, Alex Karukas, Jingy Li, Sullivan Wall and Evan Wang.

Earlier this year the team placed second in the state at the Knowledge Master Open, a worldwide competition involving higher-level questions.