After weeks of training and preparation, LT Scholastic Bowl departed for the sectionals competition taking place on March 7 at Hinsdale Central. After two victories, one against Argo and the other against the #8 seed Maine South, LT lost in the regional final against Hinsdale Central.

“We’re a pretty young team with six sophomores, one junior and one senior on varsity,” team captain Alexander Kuptel ’18 said. “We’ve developed some really good team chemistry and we have so much more room to grow.”

Throughout the year the team played 12 matches and one conference match. The top eight teams are seeded accordingly for sectionals, while the other teams are placed in the bracket at random, coach Eric Bjornstad said. LT did not rank in the top eight this year, however they did beat the #8 seed, Maine South.

Despite the loss against Hinsdale Central, the team is remaining optimistic.

“I think we have a very bright future ahead of us,” team leader Tim Houston ’18 said. “In a year or two, I think we will have a team experienced and talented enough to go farther in the tournament.”

The team meets weekly from October to February. In these meetings the team practices answering questions as they would in a meet, with questions from six categories: math, social studies, science, language and literature, fine arts, and miscellaneous, according to Bjornstad.

“I have questions from the past 10 years of coaching,” Bjornstad said. “By practicing with real questions from previous years it helps them learn the style.”

The club is very competitive and requires tryouts for varsity. In order to succeed, one must utilize prior knowledge as well as study new information, Kuptel said.

“Practice is much more important than luck,” Houston said. “Not only does it help us increase our subject content knowledge, practice helps us work on certain skills that help in Scholastic Bowl including speed, knowing when to answer, communicating with the team, and making good guesses.”

After the loss to Hinsdale Central, the LT team is out for the season. But with the combination of practice and a more experienced team, LT looks to qualify for state in two years’ time.