New Scholar Quiz Champions Crowned
Mar 26, 2025 10:17AM ● By Jeanne Fratello
Mira Costa High School's annual Scholar Quiz competition concluded on Tuesday, with a quick-thinking team of scholars claiming victory.
The "White Team" of Daniel Greenberg, Maxine Wright, Thomas Love, and Ava Larson triumphed over the "Green Team" of Alex Bindler, Dylan Feakins, Ethan Stearns, and Davis Radden, by a score of 225-190.
Tuesday's final round marked the culmination of a week's worth of activity,
in which 64 four-person teams got narrowed down into the final round of
four against four.
More than 140 volunteers helped out as flag judges, scorers, and readers - including many teachers who have been volunteering for years.
Besides receiving the Sean Barnes Memorial Trophy, the winners earned commemorative plaques and a prize of $50 each. The second place team received plaques and a prize of $30 each.
The
members of two other semi-finalist teams also received plaques and $20
each.
Whoops and Hollers
During the fast-paced competition, each team member raced to be the first to answer high-end trivia-style questions. The answers flew by fast and furious: "Tupac Shakur." "Jabberwocky." "Polynesia." "Ethanol." "Tantalus." "Vampires."
The audience, comprised mostly of students who packed the high school auditorium to standing room only, let out appreciative whoops and hollers when particularly tough questions were answered correctly.
When the theme for one lightning round of questions was announced as "Marvel Actors," the audience let out an excited "Ooooooh."
This year's question reader was Mira Costa English teacher Nicole Wachell, who herself has been a contestant on Jeopardy.
When both teams incorrectly answered a question about the novel "Crime and Punishment," Wachell good-naturedly chided the teams: "Some AP Lit kids are probably screaming in the back right now."
Competition Dates to the 1980s
The Mira Costa PTSA, which sponsored the plaques and cash prizes, has supported the competition through the years, working first in partnership with sponsor Body Glove and now with current sponsor Study Hut.
Study Hut provided all of the questions for the Scholar Quiz tournament and donated Scholar Quiz commemorative T-shirts for the top 32 teams. Study Hut co-founders and co-owners Rob Stone and Sean-Patrick Burke are Mira Costa and Scholar Quiz alums.
Mira Costa's Scholar Quiz is a beloved tradition that dates back to the 1980s. The “Original 5” who launched the annual tournament included Bill Fauver, a history and government teacher, counselor
Denise Anderson, former principal Gary Hartzell, social studies teacher
Jerry Quigley, and social studies teacher Jim Ruderman.
Fauver,
who participated in the Quiz Bowl at UCLA, first introduced the idea of
bringing the event to Costa to Hartzell. The "Original 5" then met at
the old IHOP in Hermosa Beach in 1986 to
develop the competition.
