The Santa Paula Union High School—Team 1 broke the traditional Oxnard-Camarillo domination by capturing the top prize at the “Geography Bowl 2002” competition held Saturday, Nov. 16, at Oxnard College.
Celebrating by hugging each other and singing their high school alma mater, the Cardinals held off second-place Oxnard High School—Team 1, which took first place at the 2001 GEO BOWL competition. The Santa Paula High School-Team 1 of Aerin Richardson, Megan Richardson, Edward Roller, Richard Medina, Betty Smith and Amanda Reed took the top honor after answering 17 of 20 questions correctly in the Round Robin competition where team members huddle to come up with correct answers. They tied with the Oxnard High School-Team 1 until a series of tiebreaker questions decided their victory.
Team members and advisor Don Thomas will be able to soar over the local coastline and the fields of Oxnard and Camarillo, piloted by competition judge Jim McCrory of Aspen Helicopters of Oxnard.
GEO 2002 Committee chair Chris Mainzer and judge McCrory agreed that the rivalry between the Santa Paula and Oxnard high schools made it one of the tightest competitions in years.
“Hey, we’ve got to let everyone know there are some pretty intelligent people in Santa Paula,” quipped Amanda Reed, clutching the trophy after her team was declared the winner. “We just can’t play football,” she joked, since Santa Paula High had lost their Friday night high school football game to Fillmore High.
Third-place finisher St. Bonaventure repeated their bronze win from last year with 15 points. While many of the questions reflected current events like the continuing global conflicts in Asia and the Middle East, this year’s “Geography in Action” theme for the annual event was “America’s Backyard: Exploring Your Public Lands” with questions on national parks, wildlife preserves and state boundaries. The questions reflected this theme:
“In the western U.S., which of America’s national parks shares a common border with a Canadian National Park, and is part of an International Peace Park? (Answer: Glacier National Park).
“A terrorist bombing recently occurred on the resort island of Bali. Name the capital of the country in which Bali is located.” Answer: Jakarta.) Winners in the individual written were Oxnard High’s Victor Grande (first place– 41 out of 50 correct) who used a tiebreaker to best 2nd place winner Jordan League of St. Bonaventure (41/50 points). Richard Medina of Santa Paula High placed 3rd with 38/50. |
