On Wednesday, Feb. 6, four teams comprised of four students each from Lake Region High School competed in the Maine Academic WorldQuest Competition, with the team of Amina Meziani, Mizuki Ishida, Sage Tocci, and Mackenzie McHatton taking first place among all high schools and second overall.

The competition, according to team advisors Scott Nye and Jennie Burnette, is put on by the World Affairs Council of Maine and is billed as “the ultimate international knowledge competition” with the goal of improving students’ awareness of other countries and the United States’ relationship with them. Twenty-six teams, including high school, college, and cooperate groups, competed this year at the event held at Greely High School.

The competition was fierce. At the end of six rounds, each consisting of 10 questions, there was a tie for first place among high school teams. The tie-breaking round resulted in yet another tie. Finally, in a round of “sudden death”, Lake Region took the trophy by correctly answering a question the other team could not answer.

As Maine High School Champions, the team has earned the prestigious opportunity to compete at the national level WorldQuest Competition in Washington D.C. this spring, pending fundraising.

Other participants included Nolan Abrams, Adam Cook, Sean Edwards, Brandan George, Brennan Lane, Elizabeth Schreiber, Brody Stofflet and Aime Worcester.

The WorldQuest Competitions are comprised of knowledge of world and international affairs trivia. Students spent five months studying these topics in-depth with their teacher-advisors and devoted much of their personal time after school to reading, studying, teaching each other, and preparing for this competition.

After the state competition, students on the winning team were told to take a break from World Quest. Despite this request, they were caught printing out hundreds of pages of study guides and those on the supporting teams were ready to help quiz the team on new material. Their dedication to the academic team and competition has been incomparable, Nye and Burnette said.

More categories of topics and further study of those included in the Maine competition will be incorporated in the national competition, which will be held April 27 in Washington, D.C. Students will continue and expand upon their study in the upcoming month, in hopes of supporting the winning team in their potential trip to this competition.

Maine’s WorldQuest champions, from left, are Amina Meziani, Mackenzie McHatton, Mizuki Ishida, Sage Tocci. Courtesy photo