Ana Pranger Latin’s Scholastic Bowl team has been very successful recently, winning the Masonic Academic Bowl Sectional Tournament 7-0 on February 21, as Mr. Legendre announced in gathering last week. MJ Porzenheim, Brian Lorenz, Simon Ricci, Tatiana Novak, Iz Gius, and Eddy Lee, also known as the Masonic A-Team, will compete in the Masonic Academic Bowl State Tournament in Bloomington this Saturday, March 7, and in the IHSA regionals on March 9th. All of the players were very happy with the team’s performance in Sectionals, and for a good reason. Tatiana was “confident” going into the competition, and, because the other teams were “competitive,” Latin’s team was pushed to a new level of energy and spunk. Each player did very well, and Brian and Simon were selected to the IHSA All-Sectionals Team. Simon was voted as one of the top six players in Latin’s division, making him eligible for All-State Honors. Iz and Eddy, the only underclassmen on the Masonic A-Team each wowed the audience; Iz’s knowledge of myths and Eddy’s computational math skills helped the team get a victory. Out of the seven matches, only one was very close as it was won by a mere ten points– the closest a score can be in a scholastic bowl competition. In all of the games, everyone worked together very well, especially on bonuses, during which the whole team could talk and decide their answers together. In preparation for the regional and state tournaments, the team is studying hard. Tatiana made a list of all of the questions asked during sectionals, and because the questions will not be repeated at the state tournament, the team knows not to study those questions. That narrowed down what they will need to study and help them focus on what they need to know. One of the ways the team studies is Protobowl, a website with scholastic bowl questions. As one of the most successful sports at Latin, Scholastic Bowl is truly buzz-worthy.]]>