YOUR AD HERE »

Knowledge Bowl team wins big

Steamboat Springs High School's mind squad rolls to victory

Mike McCollum

Mike McCollum


Steamboat Springs High School Knowledge Bowl team members compete Tuesday in a mock knowledge bowl contest against Steamboat Rotary Club members. From left, Charlie Stoddard, Sam Chovan, Miriam Pensack and Anna Roder beat the Rotarians, 20-5, in the 40-question quiz.
Mike McCollum

Steamboat Springs — The Steamboat Springs High School's Knowledge Bowl team held onto its perfect record Saturday in Moffat County. — The Steamboat Springs High School's Knowledge Bowl team held onto its perfect record Saturday in Moffat County.

— The Steamboat Springs High School’s Knowledge Bowl team held onto its perfect record Saturday in Moffat County.

Steamboat’s “A team,” led by senior Sam Chovan and juniors Charlie Stoddard and Miriam Pensack, achieved a 140 – almost double the score of the team’s closest competitor for the second consecutive week.

Coach Barb Tuchlinsky said that even more remarkably, Steamboat’s team has nearly doubled the cumulative score of second-place North Park High School during the course of the season.



“This is the highest-achieving team I’ve seen in my years of coaching,” she said. “What is so special is that they are so supportive of each other and it’s a great activity to be involved in. They learn teamwork and they can shine individually, too.”

Team members faced a new challenge Tuesday when they went head to head against the Steamboat Springs Rotary Club during a mock Knowledge Bowl meet. The Rotarian squad – composed of Mike Forney, Steve Hitchcock, Sandy Evans Hall and Kerry Hart – was soundly beaten, 20-5, in the 40-question competition.



Math, geology, history and literature questions were asked, including “The Iron Cross to Germany was what the __ was to the United Kingdom?”

“The Victoria Cross,” Pensack correctly answered.

Anna Roder also competed with the “A team” on Tuesday. Steamboat’s “B team”- composed of Sean Fairlie, Ryan Hogrefe and Aiden Rohde – also competed against the Rotarians.

Following the “A team’s” resounding victory, Chovan noted that the best part of being on the Knowledge Bowl team is having an outlet for random bits of trivia.

“I love that it’s a lot of random facts that most people probably think don’t have a ton of value,” he said.

“When you pull something out of thin air and it is actually correct, that’s pretty cool,” Pensack added.

The team next competes Feb. 8 at the high school. Tuchlinsky said the public is welcome to come watch the battle of wits.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Steamboat and Routt County make the Steamboat Pilot & Today’s work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.