MOSES LAKE – The Mavericks Knowledge Bowl Team from Moses Lake High School secured first place in their division at the North Central Education Services District competition held Feb. 24 in Wenatchee, according to a Moses Lake School District press release.  

“Our very own MLHS Knowledge Bowl team competes with other high schools in a Jeopardy show type of competition. Our students need to be well versed in all subject areas, able to work as a team, sharing their knowledge and to be fast with their hand on the buzzer,” said MLHS Principal Sheila Kries in the statement.  

One of the students on the team, Javier Gonzalez, said in an interview that the competition was rewarding and that he and his teammates had studied hard to prepare for the Wenatchee competition.  

“Our team meets every Tuesday and Thursday in the library after school, and we are given practice questions,” Gonzalez said.  

The questions cover a wide variety of topics ranging from math and English to pop culture and current events, Gonzalez said. The team’s performance is determined by the commitment of each team member to study and be actively invested in competition topics. Not everyone can know everything about the range of topics that may come up in a competition, but each team member can know something about some of the topics that will come up. This makes for a well-rounded team that can tackle the challenges that come up in competition.

“There’s no one person that knows everything,” Gonzalez said. “So, we rely on each other to know a bit of something, and the small bits make up a lot.”  

The team will head to state competition in Wenatchee on March 22 to represent the Mavs’ academic excellence.  

“High school knowledge bowl is a way to showcase student academic knowledge as well as to provide an opportunity for high school students to compete against other high schools academically,” Kries said.