OP Competes in the New Jersey Quiz Bowl Championships

On Saturday, January 20th, Oratory Prep Quiz Bowl competed in the New Jersey Quiz Bowl Championships at Ridgewood High School. The team set out at the crack of dawn, and despite an abbreviated event due to an impending snowstorm, an entire day’s work was put in. After feasting on bagels provided by the one and only Quiz Bowl president Justin Oei and arriving at Ridgewood, the team settled in. Opening ceremonies soon began and the team paid homage to Quiz Bowl founder, Jeopardy champ, and overall stud Dave Madden as he graced them with a speech at the event. With that, events were underway. Five matches were to be played rapid fire before the start of lunch. The A team, consisting of Justin Oei, Matt Mazzucca, Ryan Bergh Thies, Daniel Carvalheiro-Santos, Chris McAllister and Jack Mogen took home the win in 4 matches, losing one. The B team, consisting of Chris Kraemer, Nick Sannito, Tommy Gress, Fernando Aviles, John Spitznagel, and your own Nick Looney won 2 matches and lost 3, one of them being especially close. They also competed against a service dog which, unfortunately, they were not allowed to pet. After a day on the town for lunch, the Oratory lads returned for one final match to see if they would qualify for the playoffs, which were tough to make this year as they had been cut down to save time because of the snow. The B team won their match, and unfortunately did not qualify for the playoffs, but did qualify for national championships. The A team, who had already qualified for nationals, lost their match and also fell short of the playoffs. And with that, faculty advisor Mr. McCrystal yelled out “let’s go home!” and our Oratory boys packed it in after yet another exhilarating and stimulating day of academic fact-filled nerd competition.