JHS Academic Team Competes in Las Cruces

By John Earp

Last weekend, the Jal High School Academic Team traveled to Las Cruces to participate for their first time ever in a competition called Quiz Bowl with several other schools from various parts of New Mexico, including Lovington, Tatum, and Hobbs. Quiz Bowl is a trivia competition where teams of four students are quizzed on all kinds of subjects with the team that buzzes in with the correct response first winning a point. Coach Johnny Estrada, who sponsors the JHS Academic Team, says the Quiz Bowl is like Trivial Pursuit.

The competition is organized and hosted by the New Mexico State University’s Academic Trivia Club, which began hosting high school tournaments in the spring of 2022, and have continued to host events every semester. They began hosting high school tournaments in spring 2022, and have since continued to host one every semester.

Students representing Jal High School on the Academic Team this year are: Braedyn Alamanza, Avryan Romero, Natalie Lara, Myriam Juarez, Isabella Kohorst, Yaneli Sauceda, Alejandra Mendoza, Aaliyah Gaytan, April Peugh, Renata Rangel, and Jessica Rodriguez. Coach Estrada said, “They did good for our first time. Now that they know the format, I will see great improvement on their part.”