“Going into the meet, I honestly thought we were going to lose,” said senior Nate Spanier, also team spokesperson.
The team entered the meet already at a disadvantage, missing five of their team members, including two of team 1’s four members (seniors Jonathon Hank and Michael Erickson) who were absent due to a conflicting band concert.
“It put me in a lot of pressure,” said senior Cody Hanson. “[Without Mike or Jon there] I had a big gap to fill.”
As it turned out, the team had two suitable replacements in seniors Michael Nelson and Hanson, who helped guide the team to winning two of the three verbal rounds.
“I was surprised at how well Cody [Hanson] and TF [Nelson] did,” said Spanier. “I felt we had almost as much team chemistry as with Mike [Erickson] and Jon[athon Hank].”
Along with senior Joe DuBois, the 4-man team racked up 99.5 points, beating out Zimmerman and Rogers each by 7.5.
“With each passing round was a slow realization that we might actually win,” said Spanier.
Buffalo’s JV team placed 11th with 78 points, team 3 placed 22nd with 70 points, and team 2 placed 27th with 64 points.
“I’m a little disappointed with how [team 3] finished,” said junior Lawrence Michalchik. “But it was still fun being able to work with my friends.”
With questions ranging from ‘Which New Jersey university did Albert Einstein teach until his death?’, to ‘What are breakers collectively called?’, it’s nothing short of amazing to watch a team answer as many questions correctly as Buffalo did.
“The difference between Knowledge Bowl and ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’ is that we g
et a team to work with [on questions],” said Hanson. “This way we can assess strengths and weaknesses.”
The next meet for Knowledge Bowl will be Wednesday February 23 in Moorhead, where the Buffalo team focuses on winning their eighth meet of the season.
