Cowley Press

This religion’s name translates roughly as “Way of the Gods” and those gods are called kami.

For 10 points—name this traditional religion of Japan.
Buzz! —–‘Shinto?’

‘That is correct.’

AEC or Academic Excellence Challenge is the name of a Jeopardy-style game that is played by two opposing teams made up of four people to a team and asked various questions ranging from history to politics to literature and mathematics. There are 24 questions to a round each valued at 10 points; these are called toss-up questions, toss-ups are fair game for either team to buzz in and answer.

When a contestant buzzes in and answers a toss-up correctly then their team gets to collaborate on three bonus questions, these also being 10 points each, preceding the toss-up.

Cowley is home to an Academic Excellence Challenge team, one of 12 community colleges that participate in AEC.

“We’ve always competed pretty well. This year we got third place at the Snowbowl, we got second at NAQT, which is the national competition. We just missed going to Nationals by one team. So we’re pretty good,” said head-sponsor and math instructor, Greg Nichols. Going into the tournament this weekend, “I think we’ll compete, our best competition is going to be Garden City they have a team very much like ours.”

This past weekend Cowley went to the Kansas State campus in Salina to participate in the State tournament having come out of regional’s ahead of Allen County, who took second place and Johnson County, taking third. The Cowley team made up of Aaron Brooks sophomore, Jake Fletcher sophomore, Marcus Whitson, freshman, Stefny Cabrera freshman, the alternates being Carly Brock freshman and Peter Onelio freshman.

Leaving Cowley Friday morning they arrived at Salina a little after noon, enough time to check in at the conference room where the final round would take place and where the platinum travelling goblet and the double-sized angel hair-hued trophy sat fat as a pot-bellied stove on the awards table. The Salina campus, now adorned lavishly in purple, used to be a military base and that accounts for the futuristic modern design, the silver mirror glass and the cold-white, cleanly jagged halls of the buildings.

The first round began at 2 p.m. against Dodge City; and after a quick buzzer check and introduction of the moderator, who reads the questions, and the timer/scorekeeper the round began. At half time, 12 questions in, the score was 220-Cowley 10-Dodge. The starting team lineup consisted of Brooks the team captain, Whitson, Fletcher and Cabrera; the alternates being Brock and Onelio.

The first round ended with Cowley at 410 and Dodge at 90. The winning streak continued much the rest of the day. Round 2 ending Cowley-260 Cloud-120 only getting one loss to Allen County in the third round with 160- 220 to Allen. Finishing up the day with a win against Johnson County the final score was 230-210.

Back at the Candlewood Suites, Nichols commented on the events of the first day of the tournament. “I’m really happy with our performance today,” he said, “it wasn’t surprising by any means. I expected that we were going to compete really well.”

Designated team captain, Brooks said he thought, “Today we did really well. As a team we’re really cohesive. We’re all averaging a couple questions every round. So we’re all being very active, very team oriented.”

After celebrating Nichols 39th birthday with posh gifts from The Dollar Tree, playing a round of Risk™ and prank-calling the desk clerk named Patty about her opinions on firm and standard pillows the team turned in for a restful night’s sleep.

By 8 the next morning the team was up and around, festooned in their demure gray uniforms getting zoned in on the task at hand, and Nichols adorned in his Ginormous polka-dotted bow tie, purchased at the DT.

‘In the foreground a basket lies overturned, with fruit and bread spilling out. A wooden boat lies directly behind a seated man holding a walking stick; near that boat, a woman in a white gown wades in the water. Of the other two figures, one is a well-dressed man, while a naked woman supports her chin with her right hand.

For 10 points—name this painting of a picnic by Édouard Manet.’

Buzz! —–’The Luncheon on the Grass?’

‘Correct.’

The second day of the tournament:
Round one vs Hutch: 300-130
Round two vs Colby: 280-110
Round three vs Coffeyville: 220-200
Round four vs Garden: 230-300
Round five vs Hutch: 320-130

The last round before the placement round was against Kansas City, Kansas (KCK) but were soundly licked with 370-Cowley 20-KCK.

By the end of the sixth round Cowley was ahead of Allen County with 9 wins and 2 losses. Allen had the same but as Cowley had more points per game Cowley’s average scores were higher putting them in second place. Sitting at first was Garden City who lost only to Pratt, a solid team, with 9 wins, 1 loss and 1 tie.

So far the placement round Cowley will be playing Allen in a semi-final. Then the victor of that round will go into Finals against Garden City. Whoever loses the round will end up third, and in case of a tie they would go into overtime. The match was held in the large purple walled, senate-like conference room. Maybe it was the nerves, the tension. Or it could have possibly been the questions asked weren’t Cowley’s specialty but at halt-time the score was 50- Cowley 150- Allen.

During the half-time break Nichols walks over and gives his wise words of focus to the team , that’s all that could be done. The second half starts, and it seems that around question 17 Cowley wakes back up but it was too little too late and the end score was Cowley—120 Allen—200.

Cowley gets third place along with the Colin Matz Memorial [Travelling] Trophy, the Colin Matz Memorial Sportsmanship Award and a medal for Fletcher who came in fourth for top Individual scorer.

The final score between Garden City and Allen was 360 to 150 going to Garden.

The team left less than satisfied straightaway back to the bus with hands full of awards, heads full of knowledge.