Quick: Name the geological feature known as a thin band of sediment that marks what many believe was a mass-extinction event more than 65 million years ago.
You might be stumped, but UNC-Asheville’s college Quiz Bowl team knew the answer and won a championship with it. Earlier this month, after answering the question (correct answer: the K-T boundary), the team of Robert Meehan, David Coates, Joseph Blair, Jennifer Guilford and Josh Siary captured the Big South Conference championship earlier this month.
This year marked the fourth year of the nerd tournament, and the first year that UNCA’s team captured the title. The Big South is the only athletic conference to hold a Quiz Bowl, a competition officials say honors the student scholar just as sports championships honor student athletes.
Meehan, a senior who led all individual scorers in the competition, was nonchalant about his team’s victory, although he said his brain trust took some pride in knocking off Liberty University, the three-time reigning champs.
“We’re just really people who like to come together and answer trivia questions,” Meehan says.
The Quiz Bowl teams face off in lightning rounds of question-and-answer periods. The questions cover everything from history and literature to math, sports and current events.
The event is a part of the Big South Conference’s Academic Consortium, which is planning to hold its second undergraduate research symposium among conference schools the weekend of March 27 and 28 on the campus of UNCA.
— Jason Sandford, multimedia editor
Dang!! And i guessed the older name, the “Iridium Layer.” Ya gotta keep up with the times…