By Polly Keary, Editor
After a concerted effort that rescued the funding-threatened Hi-Q program, a regional high school knowledge bowl competition program for elite scholars, the Monroe Hi-Q team finished the season by taking second place in the state championship.
It was a short season, truncated by the necessity to reorganize the program following its resuscitation by Monroe students.
Everett Community College, which had been funding the program, announced last year they could no longer pay for it. But the Monroe High-Q team learned that the majority of the expenses were staff hours, and solved that problem by finding a retired Hi-Q coach who volunteered to coach, develop material for the program and handle some other tasks.
Then the team revived the long-standing $200-per-team fee for participation and got six of the area's teams to commit to a new season.
Early last month, the teams held their first contest, in which Monroe came in third.
Feb. 26, a second round was held.
Archbishop Murphy retained their first-place standing, getting 69 points. Monroe came in second with 48, and Meadowdale was third with 28.
The three teams with the highest combined scores from the first two rounds, Archbishop Murphy, Monroe and Jackson, went on to compete in the state Hi-Q Championship at Archbishop Murphy Wednesday.
The competition drew as many onlookers as would any hotly contested high school sporting event, with a capacity cheering crowd greeting the home team.
Unlike most sporting events, though, the crowd was dead silent during the competition as the students on each team answered questions in 13 categories such as current events and art history, erupting into applause when an Archbishop student answered correctly.
Once again Archbishop Murphy prevailed, taking 55 points, with Monroe in second with 40 points and Jackson earning 23.
Archbishop Murphy will go on to national championships in April.
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