After a victory last Wednesday at the Virginia High School League regionals tournament, the McLean quiz bowl team is moving on to states.

“We ended up [doing] really well,” quiz bowl sponsor Jeffrey Brocketti said. “One of our matches was a little closer than expected so it was a little nerve racking at the beginning, but they stepped it up after that.”

Regionals involved three rounds of 15 toss up questions and 10 specific questions per team. Each question was worth 10 points, but 5 points were deducted for incorrect answers. The first round was tense, with Mclean only up by 5 points when there were three questions left.

“It was one of those things where it literally could have gone either way,” Brocketti said. “It was a little nerve wracking, I was definitely nervous, but we pulled through.”

After the second round, the pressure decreased as the Highlanders found themselves up by a considerable amount, and they easily took the win after three rounds. With a first place finish at regionals under their belt, quiz bowl will be competing next at states on February 24, at Jamestown High School in Williamsburg, Virginia.

“Obviously, it would be wonderful if we could win the state tournament,” Brocketti said. “[We’re] going up against the best teams that are out there, so our goal is to always just do as well as we possibly can.”

Two of the quiz bowl teams have already managed to qualify for the National Championship tournament in May, but for the rest of the players, states will be the end of the season. For returning members, the team remains hopeful that they can keep up the momentum next fall.

“We have seniors who are going to graduate, [which] happens every year, but we also get the younger people who are coming up,” Brocketti said. “Hopefully we can get them some experience so we can keep the ball rolling next year.”