Tackling questions from topics as varied as hockey and zoology,the Stony Brook College Bowl team won its regional tournament, andwill take part in the national tournament, to be held inMontgomery, Alabama between April 23 and 25. This will be the firsttime a team from a New York City or Long Island-based Universitywill attend the national tournament, in the 51-year history of thecompetition.
The College Bowl is a trivia tournament held at over 500 collegeand university campuses nationwide, in which teams of four studentsare pitted against each other in a timed competition. According tothe tournament website, the College Bowl is dubbed ‘thevarsity sport of the mind,’ and has been held annually since1953.
To reach the national tournament, the team comprised of seniorsAdam Zimmerman, Lauren Welicky and Richard Atkinson, and sophomoreJonathan Reinstein, first participated in the campus-widetournament held last November. As the top four highest scoringplayers in the tournament, they qualified for the regional, wherethey finished first, ahead of Rutgers University-Newark, MonmouthUniversity, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Overall, 64teams participated in regional tournaments nationwide and only 16teams qualified for the national competition.
Three of the four members-Zimmerman, Atkinson andReinstein, were also members of last year’s SBU college bowlteam, which finished fourth in the regionals. Zimmerman attributedlast year’s experience as a major factor in this year’ssuccess.
‘We had more confidence as a team this year,’ saidZimmerman. ‘We knew going in that we had a good shot to winthis and that confidence translated itself.’
Reinstein cited the diverse academic backgrounds of the teammembers as another reason for their success.
‘The best way to describe our team is balanced,’said Reinstein. ‘We cover so many areas, we major indifferent fields. All the different kinds of questions they ask, wecan at least provide an educated guess for.’ Zimmerman is ahistory major, Atkinson is majoring in music, Reinstein is a majorin anthropology, and Welicky is a biology major.
Right now, the team is concentrating on preparations for thenational tournament, while the team’s advisor, AssistantDirector for Student Activities Maria Terrana, is handlingpreparations to send the team to Montgomery.
‘We meet as a group, we read old questions from pasttournaments, we read into each other and get a sense of what eachof our strengths are and what our team identity is,’ saidReinstein. The team is currently practicing twice a week, for oneto two hours each time, and will continue each week leading up tothe tournament.
‘We’ve also been practicing once a week sinceJanuary,’ said Atkinson.
According to Terrana, ‘our department [Student Union &Activities] is working on funding the team.’ Also, the teamis looking to other campus organizations, such as the CommuterStudents Association and the Honors College for additional fundingand support.
‘We’re thankful for all the campus support and allthe different campus organizations that are helping us acquirefunds and other types of support that we need to get toMontgomery,’ said Welicky.
The four finalists also founded the College Bowl club on campus,which holds mock competitions throughout the year.
‘It’s something that we started this year, andwe’re hoping, especially with Jonathan, who’s asophomore, that the club takes off,’ said Zimmerman.’We want this tournament to grow on campus, so that the morepeople [who] get involved, the better Stony Brook willdo.’
The team has enjoyed its run thus far, and is confident that itssuccess will continue in Montgomery.
‘I think we have a great group of people, it’s a lotof fun, and it’s really been a great experience,’Reinstein said.
‘It’s our first time going to nationals, but weexpect to do very well,’ said Zimmerman. ‘We’reproud to represent this campus.’
