On Saturday, Dec. 8, Victor High School’s National History Bowl team traveled to the prestigious Nichols School in Buffalo to try to reclaim the western New York title.
A recap of the fiercest rivalry in brain-based sports goes something like this:
The upstart Blue Devils defeated The Nichols School in the 2010-2011 WNY finals claiming their first state title.
The following year’s tournament ended with Nichols edging out a comeback win over Victor by ten points to claim the 2011-2012 team title. Victor swept the individual portion of the Bee with wins by Josh Arquette,Ben Mertens, and Matt Bellinger, but returned home without a team victory.
The newest chapter in the Victor/Nichols rivalry occurred on Dec. 9, 2012. Evenly matched, the first round was back and forth with lots of quick buzzes. Although, ending the quarter tied, the key was that all four starters lit their lamps early on. Finding your light early is usually a good sign and often has a calming effect on players.
True to the dramatic fashion that always seems to typify their matches, the second quarter was tied for a majority of the time. Key lamp lighting by Jon Ballard helped Victor keep pace. Bellinger buzzed deep to answer the last question of the quarter. Picking up the corresponding bonus, the Blue Devils entered half time with a miniscule 20-point lead.
Still nearly tied at the end of the half, the tension was palpable. Behind in points, Nichols had first choice in lightning round topics. They picked “Revolutionary War Heroes,” answering five out of eight questions correctly. This seemingly left Victor with little wiggle room. Victor was able to bounce back twenty points from the category.
At their turn in lightning round, they chose “Commodities of the Imperial Age.” In a performance the likes of which has never been seen, Matt Sanders led the Blue Devils through a perfect lightning round picking up the all but forgotten “perfect lightning” bonus points. Thus, they left the stunned Nichols team with no chance to pick up bounce back points. This left them in a good spot entering the final quarter of play.
Entering the fourth quarter with a ninety point lead the Blue Devils were in the driver’s seat, but still had to finish the match strong to overcome Nichols’ Jason Zhou. Early in the fourth quarter Nichols roared back to come within just fifty points of Victor, however, the Blue Devils scored, cementing a convincing seventy-point win!
On Saturday, Dec. 8, Victor High School’s National History Bowl team traveled to the prestigious Nichols School in Buffalo to try to reclaim the western New York title.
A recap of the fiercest rivalry in brain-based sports goes something like this:
The upstart Blue Devils defeated The Nichols School in the 2010-2011 WNY finals claiming their first state title.
The following year’s tournament ended with Nichols edging out a comeback win over Victor by ten points to claim the 2011-2012 team title. Victor swept the individual portion of the Bee with wins by Josh Arquette,Ben Mertens, and Matt Bellinger, but returned home without a team victory.
The newest chapter in the Victor/Nichols rivalry occurred on Dec. 9, 2012. Evenly matched, the first round was back and forth with lots of quick buzzes. Although, ending the quarter tied, the key was that all four starters lit their lamps early on. Finding your light early is usually a good sign and often has a calming effect on players.
True to the dramatic fashion that always seems to typify their matches, the second quarter was tied for a majority of the time. Key lamp lighting by Jon Ballard helped Victor keep pace. Bellinger buzzed deep to answer the last question of the quarter. Picking up the corresponding bonus, the Blue Devils entered half time with a miniscule 20-point lead.
Still nearly tied at the end of the half, the tension was palpable. Behind in points, Nichols had first choice in lightning round topics. They picked “Revolutionary War Heroes,” answering five out of eight questions correctly. This seemingly left Victor with little wiggle room. Victor was able to bounce back twenty points from the category.
At their turn in lightning round, they chose “Commodities of the Imperial Age.” In a performance the likes of which has never been seen, Matt Sanders led the Blue Devils through a perfect lightning round picking up the all but forgotten “perfect lightning” bonus points. Thus, they left the stunned Nichols team with no chance to pick up bounce back points. This left them in a good spot entering the final quarter of play.
Entering the fourth quarter with a ninety point lead the Blue Devils were in the driver’s seat, but still had to finish the match strong to overcome Nichols’ Jason Zhou. Early in the fourth quarter Nichols roared back to come within just fifty points of Victor, however, the Blue Devils scored, cementing a convincing seventy-point win!
Victor coasted through the rest of team play to claim the 2012-2013 WNY Bowl Championship. In the individual portion of the competition, Bellinger took second place and Arquette took third. Sanders took first place in the Geography Bee with Danny Iadanza taking second.
The future looks bright for Victor’s National History Bowl team as their JV team also took first place in their division (Owen Arquette, Austin Mowers, and Griffin Fitzsimmons). Victor’s JV buzzers also swept the JV individual Bee with Austin Mowers edging out teammate Owen Arquette.
Victor will host another National History Bowl tournament Feb. 9, 2013. Area schools with players grades 7-12 are welcome to join the fun and spectators are always welcome. Visit www.historybowl.com for more information.
