The Cedar Crest High School Quiz Bowl team swept the competition 6-0 in its recent title match at Penn Manor High School at the Lancaster-Lebanon League Championship Tournament to win this year’s Lancaster-Lebanon Quiz Bowl title.
The team will again represent Intermediate Unit 13 in the Pennsylvania State Academic Competition at the state capitol on May 2. The Cedar Crest Quiz Bowl team finished first in the 2023 PSAC and placed second at last year’s competition.
Read More: Cedar Crest Quiz Bowl team defends 2023 title as this year’s state runner-up
Captain Viseth Meng, a senior, and Nathan Meng, a junior, are the two returning players on this year’s team. Also on the team are junior Tyler Toscao, sophomores Chris Martinez Mejia and Devin Yang, and freshman Matthew Peelen. The team is coached by Shane Thomas and assistant coach Joe Eggert.
In a video interview with LebTown, Viseth said it’s always tough having a lot of new people – in his first year on the team, he was joined by entirely new players – but the team was able to gel by competing with each other a lot, and learning to trust each other and understand each other’s play style by having that consistent schedule.
Peelen added that leadership by the older students on the team made a difference and helped him get better at the game. “Throughout the season, I’ve noticed that I’ve gotten a lot better and as a team we’ve definitely gotten a lot better,” he said.
Thomas, a CCHS math teacher who has coached the team for about 20 years, said this year’s squad demonstrated the most growth from the beginning of the season to this point, and he hopes that continues.
“We have aspirations beyond states, and hopefully we’ll see that same kind of growth here the rest of the way,” said Thomas.
The team knows each other’s strong suits.
- Nathan Meng, science and mythology
- Chris Martinez Mejia, history and current events
- Devin Yang, Asian and Chinese history
- Tyler Toscano, European history
- Viseth Meng, literature and fine arts, as well as dabbling in other categories
- Matthew Peelen, computational math and geography (and “an aspiring literature player”)
Toscano added that “trash,” is another of his strong suits.
…Trash?
That’s Quiz Bowl slang for pop culture, sports, movies, music, TV, etc.
Thomas joked that he excels in the trash category, with the team chiming in to say he’s good in basically everything – and Thomas passing it back to say that in fact most of the players are stronger than him in their categories.
To study, the team uses the open source digital flashcard program Anki along with the Quiz Bowl question database QBReader.org and players might make hundreds of cards a week to go deep on different topics and rabbit holes.
With the state competition approaching, the team has a high bar to meet with Cedar Crest placing second at the 2024 PSAC competition and first in 2023, but they are confident and ready to meet the challenge – and already looking past it.
After states, the team will attend a national competition in Atlanta, where the questions get even harder. So much of the prep is focused on that level.
“The state tournaments run on the same level of questions that we played at our league championships,” said Thomas. “So we’re already kind of at that level, and going past that level.”
“I’ve never been more excited for a team than I have for this year,” said Viseth. “What’s impressed me is everyone’s drive to get better.”
Viseth said that it’s been really fun to watch the other players get excited about Quiz Bowl and, no matter at happens at states, he’ll know the team tried its best.
Thomas said he’s never wanted one of his teams to win as much as he has this year because he’s seen the work and effort they’ve put into improvement, and they deserve it.
“I’m just so proud of what we’ve done and what we’ve accomplished through the course of the season,” he said.
LebTown ended the interview by asking the team a few rapid-fire questions, trying to emulate the competition experience.
Quiz Bowl players all have different studying techniques. Name the player with the most intense studying technique and say what it is.
Viseth: Nathan.
“He just said he’s created a thousand flash cards this past week,” said Viseth. “That’s insane.”
Nathan chimed in, “It’s not like I don’t enjoy it though,” and said his own answer was Viseth.
Shane Thomas has been the coach of the Cedar Crest Quiz Bowl team since the 2000s. Name what makes him successful as a coach.
Yang: He tells us what we need to improve.
“He tells us what we need to improv upon and what techniques we should use, like flashcarding and writing out answer lines,” said Yang.
“Also like every morning and afternoons he organizes practices for every single team member in Quiz Bowl.”
Martinez Mejia said that Thomas is excited about the team and encourages it.
“He just has a love for Quiz Bowl that he shares with us,” he said. “It’s great to have that encouraging force just to keep this going.”
For his own part, Thomas said that what makes him successful as a coach is, “I have great kids.”
“Probably the biggest thing that I do is I try to make sure that, my program, I find the kids who belong here and the kids who will enjoy doing this, and then I try to make it as open for them to participate at whatever level they want to, and I encourage them to get out of this activity exactly what they want. And when you find the right kids and you find the kids who want to get everything out of it, you’re going to be very successful.”
After a knockout performance at Lancaster-Lebanon Quiz Bowl with a perfect record, the Cedar Crest Quiz Bowl team celebrated how?
Toscano: Took a picture with the trophy.
“We celebrated on the way home, just talked about the match, and then we got back and again we took another picture,” said Toscano.
Thomas also put the trophy on display in the middle of his math classroom.
“You guys win the state (tournament), it’s literally going on that desk for a while,” said Thomas.
Also – an orange?
“In the van on the way to leagues, I made the promise, I had an orange with me. And I promised the whole team that I would eat this orange when we win leagues,” said Peelen.
Even though he may have indulged in the snack table a bit too much, Peelen fought through the pain and did eat the orange the next morning.
“It was very worth it and very good.”
(“That was probably my highlight, the orange,” chimed in another member. “It just soaked up the aura.”)
The Cedar Crest Quiz Bowl team has finished in first and second place at the last two PSAC. Name what attribute will help them place again this year.
Yang: Grinding.
“I believe the attribute that will help us place again is just keep grinding and make like a thousand flash cards,” said Yang. “Just keep doing it and keep enjoying it.”
“I think our team’s sheer motivation and just love for the game is going to really push us far,” said Nathan. “I think every one of us really loves the feeling of buzzing in early on a question and just dominating the other team.”
“If we can continue to get stronger, I think we will have a great chances at states,” said Martinez Mejia.
“A big aspect that a lot of us don’t really talk about is, I feel like we have really good chemistry,” said Toscano.
Viseth said that it will also be important to stay calm while competing in states.
“Playing at the state Capitol can be overwhelming,” said Viseth. “Like you’re sitting in the House of Representatives or like the Senate floor and that’s a crazy place to play Quiz Bowl. So just what I would say is take a few deep breaths, enjoy the fact that you’re here right now, and that it’s the culmination of all the work that you’ve done, and just play some Quiz Bowl. Just have fun.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article misstated that the league match was against Penn Manor. It was in fact held at Penn Manor.
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