By Juliana Pearson (February 25, 2002)

The George Mason High School Schlolastic Bowl team placed first in the state competition at the College of William and Mary on Saturday, ending a nearly perfect season with a flawless win.

George Mason’s road to victory consisted of four matches, all of which George Mason dominated. The team initially faced and defeated Middlesex High School. Next GM defeated Radford high school, the defending 2001 state champions.

"Radford came to the meet prepared for victory. They wore matching team blazers and cologne. We were very pleased to beat them" said senior Evan McCulla.

The Group A pairings were such that George Mason faced and defeated Buffalo Gap twice for the win. The match was a familiar one. Earlier this month, GM faced Buffalo gap for the regional title but narrowly placed second. At the state tournament, the final match came down to the wire as well.

"After we finished the last match, we had to wait about 15 seconds before Mr. Scharff gave us the thumbs up we had won. Everybody went crazy. I almost fell over," said McCulla.

"We went in thinking, ‘if we can just do everything right, then we can pull it off.’ We did, and it feels great" said Schlastic Bowl coach and social studies teacher Jaimie Scharff.

This is the first time in VHSL history that a Scholastic Bowl team has come to the tournament as a region runner up and emerged victorious from states.

Members of the winning team include seniors Evan McCulla, Micheal Cashman and Alexis Baker, juniors Dan Bray and Pat Jones and sophomores Evan Cunningham, Rahul Gupta, Kaitlin Bottock and Joseph Mauro.

Scholastic Bowl pits four-person teams in a test of knowledge of English, math, science, social studies and miscellaneous areas like current events, entertainment, the arts and sports. Each match play consists of three parts: 15 toss up questions with team members buzzing for the opportunity to answer; 20 directed questions: 10 for each team, with team members permitted to discuss possible answers within a ten second time limit; and a second round of 15 toss up questions.

The Scholastic Bowl team has worked especially hard for their victory this year, practicing questions and strategy in Mr. Scharff’s classroom for roughly four hours every week.

"After all these great years, it’s a shame to see Evan go," said junior Dan Bray, referring to his senior team member, whom Scharff called the "star" of the tournament. 

"We really had an excellent team. We win because the team works together so well," McCulla added.

Although team members may be dissapointed to see the triumphant Scholastic Bowl season come to an end, practices continue for It’s Academic, the television quiz show in which the George Mason team defeated Sidwell Friends School and George C. Marshall High school in December. The It’s Academic quizmasters include McCulla, Bray and Cunningham. The next taping will be on March 23^rd at NBC 4 studios in Northwest Washington. 

Watch Lasso Online for more photos of the Scholastic Bowl state tournament.