Samo Ocean Bowl team dominates JPL competition and qualifies for finals

On Feb. 25, 2017, the Samo Ocean’s Bowl team won the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Southern California Regional Ocean Science Bowl competition. The team was extremely dominant and won all of their nine games. This victory came thanks to months and months of diligent and hard work.“The students put an immense amount of work into preparing,” AcaDeca instructor Ingo Gaida said. “They have been studying all year, but the past couple of months we have been practicing every day in class, as well as twice a week after school, for two to three hours each time. I have given them huge packets of information to study, and each student has a specialty.”The team composed of Amy Amatia (’17), Rhys Gaida (’17), Nanki Chugh (’18), Josh Sheng (’18) and Ryu Akiba (’18) passed a round robin of six teams and then a double elimination by winning their games by an average score of 114 to 58. The last game to determine the winner of the entire tournament was against Arcadia High School. Samo’s win was up to only two points.“It was at the point where Arcadia could not afford to go fast because they would have lost points for answering incorrectly early on,” Sheng said. “We knew we could wait until the end. I knew the answer as well Ryu, and I was sure the rest of the eam did as well, but he was the fastest after the final answer was read.” By winning the regional competition, the team earned the right to represent Southern California at the National Ocean Science Bowl Competition. The competition will take place in Corvallis, Oregon on the Oregon State University campus from April 20-23. Now that their place is guaranteed in the finals, the team has been putting in more work.“We are preparing by practicing a lot more,” Gaida said. “I am also digging up some more obscure information, to add to their already obscure information—they will be studying this stuff for many hours in order to prepare.”This year, it seems like Samo has a talented team with great chances of winning in Oregon.“Last year we came in third at Nationals, losing to the winning team on the last question,” Gaida said. “I think this team is more experienced and faster than last year's team, so I think we have a chance to win it all.”Along with the great performance of the Ocean’s Bowl Team, the Quiz Bowl team, composed of Nathan Wenger (’17), Cy Gilman (’18), Juliet Pooler (’18), Tom Malmgren (’18), also delivered and qualified for the National Quiz Bowl competition in Atlanta in May with a record of seven wins and four losses.