As the final minutes trickled by, Clark students impatiently awaited a final miracle at the 29th annual GUSD Scholastic Bowl competition on March 11. After a rollercoaster night and Clark’s placement fluctuating throughout the evening, the CMHS team persistently fought for the final points that would determine their ultimate standing after weeks of studying and practicing. Yet, as the countdown proceeded, silence surrounded the crowd and participants onstage. With no answer from any teams, the judges locked down the scores of the night with Clark once again finishing in third place.  

In the weeks leading up to the event, the team sacrificed their lunch every Tuesday and Wednesday to practice a variety of quiz problems with their coach, librarian Susan Newcomer. With the competition right around the corner, the broad studying spectrum was quickly narrowed down to the “Roaring Twenties,” which was announced as this year’s theme for the competition.  

Leading up to the Scholastic Bowl event, team members participated in an essay contest and were also allowed to familiarize themselves with the buzzers at the competition. As the evening began drawing nearer, Glendale High School’s John Wayne Performing Arts Center filled up with supportive Clark students, staff and family members to cheer on the school’s Scholastic Bowl team. The competition commenced with the CMHS team at a steady advantage, having won the most amount of possible points on the essay component, which is completed prior to the event. However, the team’s five-point lead ahead of Crescenta Valley’s 30 points wasn’t enough to safeguard the spot, resulting in a challenging battle in the first round, where teams collaborate to answer on a whiteboard which is then raised and displayed to the panel of judges.

As CV’s team continued to undeviatingly display correct answers, Clark’s grip on the winning spot slowly began to slip, eventually falling to second place on a biology question after mistaking kelp for phytoplankton. Tensions continued to brew, when senior Daniel Rostamloo contested a physics problem to the judges when a ratio was misunderstood, but much to Clarkies and the team’s disappointment, the answer was not acknowledged and didn’t receive any points. Despite the team’s attempts to regain first place, CMHS finished the first round in second place, closely trailing Crescenta Valley by a couple of points.

For the second and final part of the competition, teams were allowed to swap members of their team to compete in the buzzer round. For CMHS, senior Sangam Sharma was exchanged for senior Kai Fergallo-Hawkins and with high hopes, the audience rooted for a possible reuptake of the prized winning place. From questions on the title of Agatha Christie’s first novel to Botticelli’s artwork, Clark seemed to have a possibility as senior Brijal Shah dominated the language arts and history categories. Unfortunately, stumped by a mathematics problem, Hoover was able to surpass Clark’s second place standing and demoted the team to third place.

In the heat of the moment, senior Emily Woods eagerly anticipated the upcoming music category but was unable to answer because the question was cancelled after the quizmaster forgot to announce the succeeding question pertaining to the melody. As the judges scrambled to prepare a subsequent question, participants rapidly realized that their buzzers had malfunctioned prompting the organizers to call a two-minute break.

As the evening came to a close, Clark fell down to fourth place as a language arts question propelled Glendale HS to third. Yet, a series of history questions helped the team surge back to third place, with CMHS ultimately ending the competition seven points behind second.

After the points were calculated, Glendale High School took fourth place with 50 points, Clark Magnet High School remained at third with 57 points, Hoover High School took second with 64 points and Crescenta Valley High School won the competition with 71 points. Despite being third overall, the team did win the Essay Winners trophy due to their success in answering this year’s prompt about global warming.

“This was my last year so I definitely enjoyed it,” Sharma said. “It’s more about the experience than actually winning, because at the end you get to make an impact on your school community and meet other skilled students around the district.”