Bible Quizzing Nationals

Nadia joined our church's Bible quizzing team in January 2020, but naturally the competitions that spring were cancelled. The first time she participated in nationals was in Oklahoma in 2021, and very few teams participated that year. Our church only had one team that year, and our team won, but honestly Nadia contributed almost nothing toward the victory that year as they had seven people on the team but only four can quiz at one time. Ian and Nadia both attended nationals in South Carolina in 2022 on our church's B team. Both of our church's teams won their respective divisions that year. Last year they both participated in the nationals in Indiana, and the two teams again won. That time Ian and Nadia contributed more. Last fall Ian set a goal for himself to make it on our church's A team this year, and he achieved that goal! 

Because the nationals were held at Houghton in New York, Paul, Oliver, and I attended the competition. Ian and Nadia rode up to Houghton with their team on Wednesday, and Paul, Oliver, and I came up on Thursday. We missed seeing the individual matches on Thursday, but we saw the team matches that day as well as the individual and team matches on Friday. Everyone else from our church is staying in the dorms on campus. Paul, Oliver, and I opted to spend two nights in an Airbnb located about 1/2 mile from the building where the competitions are taking place. The quizzing includes written competitions, individual, and team competitions. The team eats all their meals in the dining hall on campus. We ate a packed lunch on our way here on Thursday. Houghton is in the middle of nowhere. There are no grocery stores in Houghton, and there are only three restaurants - coffee shop, pizza place, and a Chinese restaurant. We got a large pizza at Bum's pizza on Thursday night, and on Friday at lunch I picked up another large pizza as a carryout order. Paul and Oliver had pizza for dinner both days and for lunch on Friday. I had pizza twice and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for the third meal. We brought cereal with us and got a half gallon of milk at a grocery store on Thursday afternoon. On Saturday we ate food we had brought from home for our lunch, and on Saturday evening we "splurged" and paid $48 for the three of us to eat dinner in the dining hall with the quizzers. On Friday evening the quizzers and officials from our church went out for ice cream. Paul and I didn't have any, but we bought Oliver a dish of watermelon soft serve. Oliver had a blast hanging out on campus with Xandir, Ben, and Ian after the quizzing was done each day. Sometimes we walked to campus from our Airbnb, and other times we drove. 

Ian, Ben, Faith, and Leila are on the A team this year. Ben has been on the A team for several years, and this is Leila's 2nd year on the A team. Ian and Faith both just finished 8th grade, Leila just finished 7th grade, and Ben just completed 10th grade. Seven of the eight members of our teams are homeschooled. Leila attends the Christian school at our church. Ben was the team captain. This team was undefeated on Thursday and Friday, which made them the top seed in the A division on Saturday. They also were undefeated on Saturday. North Rome entered the finals as the second seed, but a loss to Sweetser meant that North Rome moved to the third place. Our A team competed against Sweetser in the championship round and won the for the fourth year in a row. 

Nadia, Xandir, Lucy, and Jillian are on the B team this year. This is Xandir and Lucy's first year of quizzing. Nadia just finished 10th grade, Jillian finished 8th grade, Lucy finished 6th grade, and Xandir just completed 5th grade, which is the minimum grade level to be eligible to participate. Faith, Lucy, and Xandir know the memory verses VERY well. Nadia was the team captain. For the first time since 2014, both of our church's teams ended up in the top division of the finals! North Rome won 2nd place, and there was a three-way tie for third place, but only the top four teams could be in the A division. The tie breaker for a three-way tie is the written scores. Sweetser had the best written score of the three teams, but our team came in second place, which meant our B team was the fourth seed of the A division. When our B team lost 3 matches on Thursday, they began to lose hope of achieving the goal of also being in the A division for the finals, but they won all their matches on Friday, and North Rome helped them out by beating Sweetser in the last match on Friday. Although they had beat Sweetser on Thursday, they lost all of their matches on Saturday, which meant they ended in fourth place. The last two years our B team won the B division, which would have been equivalent to fifth place this year. If they had been in the B division this year, they would have won all their matches on Saturday by a large margin. There was a big gap in ability between team #5 and teams 6-8.

Nadia and Ian also qualified for the individual final competition this year, which was a first for both of them. They both improved SO much over the last year! Six of the eight kids from our church qualified to be in the individual finals. Leila (from our church) and Simon (senior from Sweetser) tied for first place. Other winners included Ben (3rd), Faith (4th), Tony (5th), Ruth (6th), Ruby (7th), and Ian and Xandir tied for 8th. 

The winners of the written part of the competition were as follows: Faith (1st), Simon (2nd), Ruth, Julia, Leila, Ruby, Jillian, Ian (8th), Tony, and Ben. The kids in our A team were all in the top ten on both the written and individuals, and two members of our B team were each in the top ten for one of those two awards. Two special awards were also given to Tony and Simon. Nadia and Ian both showed a lot of improvement over the last year, and I'm hoping the same will be said of them next year in Oklahoma when they quiz over the book of Luke! Our church might have three teams next year as four new people (Oliver being one of them) plan to join in the fall. At the moment Paul and I don't plan to attend the one in Oklahoma in 2025, but we are planning to attend the following three in South Carolina (26), Indiana (27), and back in Houghton (28). If Nadia attends in 2027 or 2028, she might serve as an official because 2026 will be her final competition. Chris (from our church) graduated last year, and he was an official this year. Hopefully the Holy Spirit will use the verses these kids have memorized in their lives for decades to come. Sweetser's t-shirts said, "Study it, quiz it, live it," and I hope that is true for all of the quizzers!