Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
THE BESSEMER and Ironwood Quiz Bowl teams are pictured Saturday in Marquette. Bessemer beat Ironwood 270-160 in the final to claim the championship. Pictured are from left, first row, Quiz Bowl host Jim Koski and Ironwood's Jordan Giannunzio, Zane Ozzello, Brett Mattson, Riley Jarocki, Ian Bentley and Ironwood coach Steve Boyd; second row, Bessemer's Daniel Trekas, Alex Hooyman, Molly Wieringa and Claire Jackson; and third row; Bessemer coach Dave Rowe and Valerie Rowe.
MARQUETTE - In an all Gogebic County final, the Bessemer Quiz Bowl team of Alex Hooyman, Claire Jackson, Valerie Rowe, Daniel Trekas and Captain, Molly Wieringa, defeated Ironwood 270-160 to take the WNMU-TV 13 High School Quiz Bowl tournament title on Friday.
This year's tournament consisted of 40 teams and 39 matches with the semifinals and finalbeing played on Friday.
On its road to becoming champions, Bessemer, described by show host, Jim Koski as the "come back kids," defeated Marquette 360-210, West Iron County 240-210 and Gwinn 270-260, before topping Escanaba 290-230 in the semifinals.
Both Bessemer coach Dave Rowe and Ironwood coach Steve Boyd knew they had good teams this year and both were hoping for an all-Gogebic County show down in the final.
Ironwood advanced to the finals by defeating Hancock 290-170 in their semifinal.
Coach Rowe admitted to being very nervous about the final match, but was relieved to have made it to play in the final round.
"In our first three games we came from behind to win," he said. "In the Gwinn game, we were 150 points behind at one point but came back to win in the last second of the game."
In the final match against Ironwood, Rowe said his team was "in the zone" and they were able to buzz in early and get the toss ups. That led to the bonus questions and the win.
"On any given day, a team could win or lose based on the questions that get asked but my team is very strong in many areas and our balanced team makes us hard to beat," Rowe said.
Rowe also said that he decided to switch two of his players for different matches based on what strengths he thought he needed for a given match.
"In the end, both Valerie Rowe and Daniel Trekas came through when I really needed them, just like Alex Hooyman, Claire Jackson and Molly Wieringa always do," Rowe said. "This group of kids is really special and we will always cherish the memories. It was quite a ride."
As champion, Bessemer received a $2,500 scholarship from Northern Michigan University and runner-up Ironwood received a $1,500 scholarship to NMU.
The semifinal matches will air on TV 13 on April 4 and 6 and the final match will air on April 11 and 13.
