Complicated algebra, famous historical events and human anatomy are some of the topics involved with the trivia event, Scholar’s Bowl. When it comes to knowing random trivia, the Lions were on top most of the season.

“We did pretty well this semester,” sponsor Matt Ellis said. “We took second and first place at six of the nine invitational tournaments that we went to this year.”

Ellis attributed the success to a strong team.

“We have some really great, smart and all-around wonderful students this year,” Ellis said.

Students involved with Scholar’s Bowl must be multi-talented in order to perform well. The categories include world language (French, German and Spanish); social studies (geography, economics, government, history and psychology); language arts (anything from British literature to Greek myths); mathematics (algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus and statistics); and science (chemistry, physics, biology, earth science and astronomy). Students can also be asked current event questions.

Sophomore Nick Steichen said sophomore Stefan Petrovic was a strong part of the team.

“He gets a lot of the social studies questions or geography questions, which helps a lot,” Steichen said.

Teamwork was a large part of the competition, too.

“I think that sometimes in competitions I was a little scared to hit the buzzer,” junior Ivan Davidson said, “but my team was always there for me, and that’s why we did so well.”

Questions vary. Some cause even the most skilled students to draw blanks or rely on educated strategies.

“There are a lot of weird ones,” Steichen says. “Sometimes when there are questions about body parts that you have no idea, just answer the kidney and you’re probably going to get it right.”

Students have their reasons for wanting to join the extracurricular activity, and they have to have the brains to do it.

“I thought that it would be fun and I’d be able to learn some things and maybe show off some knowledge,” Davidson said.