By Katie Rosenberger (January 15, 2003)

"Identify the Austro-Hungarian born pioneer in electrical technology who worked briefly for Thomas Edison but soon quit to develop a system using alternating current, then invented an induction motor and later had a unit of magnetic flux density named for him."

If you didn’t know that Nikola Tesla was the answer to this question, then you are no different from the other ninety percent of Masonites. The George Mason Scholastic Bowl Team, however, was able to correctly answer this question and many more like it during their two matches in the library on Monday night. The team, made up of Dan Bray, Kaitlin Bottock, Evan Cunningham, Raul Gupta, Pat Jones, Casey Smirniotopoulos and Joseph Mauro, was able to maintain their undefeated streak by beating Brentsville 195-55 and Strasburg 220-80 in the last two matches of the season.

Kaitlin Bottock, Dan Bray, and Casey Smirniotopoulos  listen as a tricky problem is read during their meet  against Brentsville on Monday night.  (Photo be Michael Miller)

This is the second year in a row that the scholastic bowl team has ended its regular season undefeated and with a current record of 12-0 this is the best year for the team ever. Even though on Monday night the team was missing Raul Gupta, a starter, they still managed to keep another streak alive, never winning by less than 100 points. This is an impressive accomplishment considering the types of questions that are asked at these meets. Students must not only know facts from the major disciplines of science, history, geography, English, and math, but they also must know certain pop culture trivia, such as the birth name of Madonna.

Joseph Mauro and Kaitlin Bottock perform difficult  computations in their efforts against the Strasburg  Scholastic Bowl Team. (Photo by Michael Miller)

Mr. Scharff, who has been team coach for the past four years, is taking his team to Clarke County High School this Saturday for the district competition at 10 a.m. The team has won at districts for the past three years in a row and given the team’s regular season record, Mr. Scharff says he feels "pretty good" about his charges' chances this year. 

If they do well at districts they will go to regionals in Chatham, Virginia two weeks later. If they win at regionals then they will go to state competition at William and Mary College on February 1^st to compete in the regional competition. Scharff said that the region Mason is in "seems to be a fairly difficult one, but we've done well at regionals in past years and hopefully this year we will do just as well." If they do, they may just be state champs once again.