Scholar Quiz Winners

By Kayla Knowles
Executive Theme Editor

The winners of the 2015 Scholar Quiz left the Mira Costa auditorium silent with their ability to rapidly and correctly answer questions.

The Scholar Quiz team Team Kelleher, which also calls itself Family Duty Honor, won Scholar Quiz on June 2. It defeated Team O’Brien with a score of 330 to 240. The team consisted of freshmen Tommy Kelleher and Peter Lu and seniors Jamie Kelleher and Katie Shalvarjian.

“We did not expect to get as far as we did, but our prior experience and knowledge in Scholar Quiz definitely helped us get this far,” Lu said.
Lu and Tommy Kelleher had participated in Scholar Quiz at MBMS prior to entering high school and won in the finals in 2014. Shalvarjian has been competing in Scholar Quiz since sixth grade. Jamie Kelleher entered with no prior Scholar Quiz experience.

“Our team entered together because I wanted to spend more time with my brother since I am graduating this year,” Jamie Kelleher said. “My brother and I made a team and then asked two friends to join.”

To prepare for the Scholar Quiz, Team Kelleher watched “Jeopardy,” a game show in which contestants are given answers and have to supply the question, and “Quiz Bowl,” a game where two teams compete and are tested on multiple academic subjects, prior to the tournament beginning.

“Peter and I did a lot of ‘Quiz Bowl’ and played ‘Jeopardy’ almost every night in preparation for Scholar Quiz,” Tommy Kelleher said.

According to Shalvarjian, the team didn’t expect to do so well in Scholar Quiz. However, as stated by Team Kelleher, the team had a range of topics covered by its members. Tommy Kelleher’s strengths were history, English and geography. Lu’s strengths were math and science as stated by the team members. Jamie Kelleher and Shalvarjian are more knowledgeable on topics like pop culture and music. These skills were acquired from prior educational experiences.

“I think we all knew when to let each other answer the questions we weren’t sure about answering,” Jamie Kelleher said. “We all understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”

According to team members, Tommy Kelleher answered the majority of the questions, and Lu followed in his wake. The whole team is excited about its win.

“We were really nervous going up against the green team,” Shalvarjian said. “They were really strong and had been playing together since middle school, so it was intimidating,”

Although Shalvarjian and Jamie Kelleher are graduating, Lu and Tommy Kelleher plan on competing again and hope to win again in their next three years at Costa.

“The younger members had a lot of experience from their prior years at MBMS, which helped us accomplish this win and will help them progress in Scholar Quiz in the following years,” Shalvarjian said.