For release: Jan. 30, 1999
Contacts:
Susan Dieterle, Public Affairs, (515) 294-1405
Steve Karsjen, Public Affairs, (515) 294-5643
AMES, Iowa -- The school with the smallest team won the biggest prize Saturday as a trio from Ankeny High School won the regional Science Bowl sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University.
Ankeny won the championship match 84-30, defeating Pleasant Valley High School for the title. Valley High School, which won the 1998 National Science Bowl, finished third.
While most of the 40 schools who competed throughout the day at ISU's Memorial Union had four or five team members, Ankeny decided to field a team of only three players when a fourth student decided not to participate.
"These three students are seniors who have played together on Science Bowl teams since they were sophomores," said Mark Maffett, coach of the Ankeny team. "They decided they knew each other so well that they didn't want to add someone new."
By winning the Ames Lab/ISU Science Bowl, Ankeny advances to meet 52 other regional winners in the Department of Energy's National Science Bowl, scheduled to take place April 30-May 3 in Chevy Chase, Md. The team that wins this year's national championship will participate in the 30th International Science School for high school students July 5-16 at the University of Sydney in Australia.
Nationwide, more than 9,000 students from 1,800 schools will participate in Science Bowl competitions this year. The Ames Lab/ISU Science Bowl drew nearly 200 students who spent Saturday answering questions from a broad range of science and math topics.
The winning Ankeny trio -- Doug Fuller, Jared Feuerhelm and Josh Sayre -- said two tactics helped them defeat larger teams: effective time management during the matches, and buzzing in aggressively when they felt they knew the answers.
"We work really well together," added Fuller, the team captain.
Ankeny entered the championship round with a loss to Valley High School, while Pleasant Valley had remained undefeated. Because the afternoon portion of the event has a double-elimination format, the second-place school had to have a total of two losses.
Ankeny won the first championship match against Pleasant Valley by a score of 76-22. That forced the second, and deciding, championship match.
ISU President Martin Jischke was the moderator and Ames Lab Director Tom Barton was the judge for the championship round. At the conclusion of the event, Jischke awarded trophies to the top three teams.
About 70 volunteers from Ames Laboratory and ISU served as moderators, judges, scorekeepers and timekeepers for the daylong event.
Last revision: 1/30/99 sd
Home | Comments | Search | Disclaimer