The Zahm House quiz bowl team defeated St. Edward’s Hall 2-0 in a best-of-three series during the interhall championship Tuesday evening, sealing their victory on the last question of the second round.
The St. Edward’s team, composed of four freshmen, came into the championship match undefeated, captain Tommy Davis said. The members were not discouraged by their loss in the championship, Davis said.
“We started at the bottom, and now we are here,” he said. “No matter what happens, we are proud of that.”
Zahm’s team consisted of six seniors that had won the annual interhall quiz bowl tournament three times in the past four years. Zahm lost in the 2013 championship to St. Edward’s, which was their only loss in four years during the regular season or playoffs.
The official quiz bowl website states the distribution of topics as questions in literature, history, science, religion, mythology and philosophy, fine arts, social sciences, geography and the category trash/current events. Senior Matthew Unger, Zahm’s team captain, said the structure of the competition includes “toss-up questions” as well as bonus questions.
Unger said experienced quiz bowl competitors comprised Zahm’s successful team.
“Most of us had participated in high school quiz bowl and were trivia buffs, so we thought it would be enjoyable to compete in college for Zahm,” he said. “After we had fun and won freshman year, we continued a tradition of participating every year.”
“The fact that we were balanced and well-rounded gave us the ability to answer questions from any category,” he said. “Will Chronister and Andrew Marino were especially great, but everyone contributed and had fun which made us unique.”
According to Unger, the interhall competition is an alternative to the more competitive collegiate competitions, giving interhall participants the opportunity to mix fun with trivia.
According to the Notre Dame Quiz Bowl website, the history of Notre Dame’s interhall competition dates back to 2004. The website credits Bryce Durgin, a 2011 graduate, with rebuilding the tradition of quiz bowl at Notre Dame.
“He [Bryce] possessed two qualities equally as valuable — a passion for quiz bowl and a knowledge of high school quiz bowl. The former drove him to spur on the rebuilding process as much as possible; the latter enabled him to inform the team about the numerous opportunities for competition available.”
