For release: January 31, 2004
Contacts:
Steve Karsjen, Public Affairs, (515) 294-5643
AMES, Iowa - Urbandale High School won every one of its 10 matches here Saturday to win the championship of the 14th annual Regional Science Bowl, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University. Urbandale narrowly defeated Iowa City Regina 72-64 in the finals to earn the right to represent the Iowa Region in the DOE's National Science Bowl®, April 29-May 3 in Washington, D.C.
The next challenge facing the Urbandale team of Jonathan Berrie, David Nelms, Stephen Kallenbach, and Kausteya Roy, however, may not be competition from winners in the other 65 Regionals nationwide. Urbandale’s prom is scheduled for the same time as Nationals. If the four team members and their coach Marc Hermon are unable to make the trip, runner-up Regina would go instead.
Those same two teams met earlier in the semifinals of the afternoon’s double-elimination competition which Urbandale won 100-24. Regina then defeated Des Moines Lincoln 68-26 in the consolation bracket to make it back into the championship round. Competing for Regina were Matt Larew, Peter Montag, Annie Porter and Phil Shiu under the direction of coach Barbara Reilly. Third-place winner Lincoln needed two overtime periods to oust Ames High School in the other semifinal match. The Lincoln team also featured a first in the 14-year competition -- two sets of twins -- in sisters Molly and Emma White, and Ru-Huey and Ru-Shyan Yen. Also competing for Lincoln was Matt Klein.
A total of 48 teams from across Iowa competed in the day-long
event. Students answer a variety of science and math questions in a quiz-bowl
format. Points
are awarded for answering toss-up
and bonus questions.
The teams competing in round-robin pools during the morning with the top two
teams from each of the
eight pools advancing to the afternoon round.
Besides those mentioned above, the “Sweet 16” included:
Ankeny, Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn, Cedar Rapids Jefferson, Central Academy (Des
Moines), Waverly-Shell Rock, Cedar Rapids Washington, Sioux City East, Humboldt,
Chariton, Le Mars,
West Des Moines Valley “
B,” and St. Ansgar. Central Academy and St. Ansgar were the other quarter-finalists
that were eliminated by
Urbandale and Regina respectively.
Ames Laboratory is operated for the Department of Energy by Iowa State University. The Lab conducts research into various areas of national concern, including energy resources, high-speed computer design, environmental cleanup and restoration, and the synthesis and study of new materials.
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Editors: Digital images of the top three teams and nearly all of the competing schools are available by contacting Kerry Gibson, (515) 294-1405 or kgibson@ameslab.gov
Last revision: 2/4/04 kbg