University of Idaho students put their knowledge to the test last week in the annual College Bowl competition.
Co-hosted by UI”s Intramural Sports, the Idaho Commons and the Student Union, the College Bowl is a question-and-answer game played by students of all majors and undergraduate levels. For each team of four competitors, two nine-minute halves are played.
Butch Fealy, associate director of competitive and recreational sports, said the number of student participants was much higher this year than last year.
Thirty-one teams participated in this year”s event compared to the 13 teams present in the 2015 College Bowl.
Mamta Kandel | Argonaut
UI students Dino Vinci, Colton Biedenbach and Cole Lickley represent their team at the College Bowl Thursday.
The College Bowl was a two-night event. Thursday”s competition was based on a tournament schedule to narrow down each of the teams, and the final four teams of the game competed on Friday.
The final four teams consisted of Farmhouse, Team Who Must Not Be Named, Fiji and Bloodhounds. Team Farmhouse, which featured members Nathan Clemans, Kevin Blosser, Phillip Barnes and Matt Daniel, ultimately rose as the victors. Along with the title of 2016 College Bowl champions, they also received VandalStore gift cards.
The questions covered music, geography, history, pop culture and more.
“We outsource the questions through the National Academic Quiz Tournament Company,” said Dante Jones, Student Involvement program coordinator. “They create new questions every year, and then we use them for the competition.”
There are two kinds of questions: toss-up questions, which both teams can try to answer, and bonus questions that can be answered by the team that answers the toss-up question correctly.
After Farmhouse won the first round, Clemans said it was great to have one of the first wins of Thursday night.
“We really just found some guys and put together a team,” Clemans said. “All we did was have a good positive attitude coming into the competition.”
Clemans said there were a lot of music and art related questions, so the team studied those subjects.
“Our team had a great sports guy, and he knew all of the answers to those kind of questions, which really helped,” Clemans said.
While undergraduate students are the primary participants in the College Bowl, this year”s staff members of the Department of Student Involvement and the Volunteer Center formed a team to test their knowledge.
Natalie Magnus, Volunteer Center program coordinator, Katie Dahlinger, assistant director of Student Involvement and Jones competed as a team of three.
Dahlinger said they have all been out of the game a while, but they were ready to have a good time.
“These questions are definitely made for you to answer while you are still in college and taking those types of classes,” Magnus said. “But, it is still fun to play.”
Jones said seeing everyone get excited about competing is the best part of the College Bowl.
“When I was in college, games like this were never a big thing for me, so it”s nice to have something that the students enjoy,” Jones said. “We give out prizes and just have a really good time.”
Hailey Stewart can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @hailey_ann97