Elmira High School’s Oregon Battle of the Books team competed Wednesday at Regionals, held in the evening at North Eugene High School.
The EHS advisors said they were excited and confident entering into the competition because of the team members and their dedication to reading.
The team consisted of juniors Kara Catmull, Kelsey Hemple, Gwen Scadlock and Arina Rose, with the support of advisors Ian Cooper, Sherry Cooper, Jessica Coone and Stephanie Ziegler.
Elmira’s team finished first in pool play and third overall at Regionals, losing to Junction City High School. The final score was 50-40. The local schools to advance to state were North Eugene and Siuslaw high schools.
“We were really surprised to come out of pool play with the No. 1 spot,” Hemple said. “We weren’t unprepared, but we didn’t feel as prepared as the other teams, so it was crazy that we came out on top. To come out third overall is still really impressive when compared to how we thought we would do in Regionals, and we are all really excited for next year now that we know what we can do.”
Before Regionals, EHS battled against Churchill, Siuslaw and North Eugene High School. The scores, respectively, were 43-25, 43-25 and a tie at 35-35.
“Overall, I think the team did amazing,” Catmull said. “We spent months reading the books and memorizing the information in them. I couldn’t be more proud about how we did at the regional competition.”
“I’m glad that our team made it as far as we did, considering we haven’t competed before and it was a fun yet stressful experience,” Rose said. “Hopefully next year we’ll make it to state.”
There were seven teams in the pool play, and EHS fought three battles. In the pool play battles, there were 16 questions, evenly split between two categories: “In Which Book” and content questions. Each question was worth five points.
In the final battle, there were 32 questions, and EHS entered into a sudden death battle against Junction City. They had many successful steals as well. A steal is when one team misses a question, then the opposing team can steal that question and get the opportunity to answer it.
The team felt prepared and was knowledgeable on the questions, specifically the “In Which Book” questions, but the content questions were where the EHS team struggled the most.
Team member Scadlock was unable to attend the competition, putting EHS at a disadvantage.
Next year, the team would like to have more people involved in the club because it would improve their practice and allow for them to compete against one another.
OBOB also received a large donation recently that will help buy books and support the club next year. Next year’s books are being selected and soon will be finalized.
The EHS team plans to celebrate with Voodoo Doughnuts on Monday.
