For the second time in four years, Sequim High’s Knowledge Bowl team took third place at the 2A state tournament.

This year’s winning team of Jessie Bainbridge, Ian Baylon, Jack Crecelius, Kimberly Heintz, Gavin Mayfield, Melia Nelson, and Laila Sundin competed in Wenatchee High School on March 22 against 17 other schools.

“This finished off one of our best seasons ever as we also won the regional tournament for the first time in at least 12 years,” said advisor and Sequim High teacher Laura Gould.

Sequim defeated teams from the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas to earn the state spot, she said.

“All the kids have their strengths, and the team has great chemistry,” Gould said. “They just work well together.”

A Sequim team placed third in 2022, and another won the 2A title in 2018.

To prepare for the tournament, Gould said students have been practicing after school three times a week since November, and many study on their own as well.

“They have worked so hard to achieve this success,” she said.

The state tournament opens with a written round of 50 multiple-choice questions under a 35-minute time limit.

Teams then compete in four preliminary oral rounds with 50 questions each before entering the semi-final and championship rounds with another 50 questions each.

According to organizers, questions cover topics likely covered in high school courses, such as history, literature, math, music, and science, along with current events and general topics.

Gould said one of the notable questions included spelling the word “isosceles” after a complex math question involving isosceles triangles and trigonometry.

Another question the team answered right was thanks to Heintz.

She had remembered the title of Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” from a mug Gould had gifted her prior to the tournament about great literature.

For more information about the Washington State Knowledge Bowl, visit https://sites.google.com/wenatcheeschools.org/wa-kb/home.