Medina wins Scholastic Bowl championship

Posted 30 March 2022 at 4:30 pm

Provided photos: Pictured from left include coach Jeff Dole, Alex Balaban, Arian Cayea (captain), Isaac Pace and Scholastic Bowl host Derick Evans.

Press Release, Medina Central School

MEDINA – Congratulations are in order for Medina High School’s Alex Balaban, Arian Cayea and Isaac Pace who took home first place in the Niagara’s Choice Credit Union Scholastic Bowl that was hosted by WLVL 1340 AM/105.3 FM.

The event was held at Niagara County Community College on Friday and the team, coached by Jeff Dole, beat Starpoint to become the 2022 Scholastic Bowl Champions.

Medina Scholastic Bowl team members Alex Balaban, Arian Cayea (captain) and Isaac Pace hold the trophy after winning the championship.

Scholastic Bowl is an academic buzzer competition similar to Jeopardy, but with teams testing their knowledge in literature, science, history, math and more. The Medina team dominated the whole season with David Berry, Dan Owen DeVera and Cole Hughes also representing the team throughout the regular season.

Mr. Dole says the team finished the regular season in first place and won the first two playoff games against Roy-Hart and North Tonawanda.

“In the championship game against Starpoint, Alex, Arian and Isaac represented our school,” Mr. Dole said. “It was an intense matchup with the Starpoint team taking a 5-point lead after the first round. Medina was in the lead by 5 points after the second round. In the final round, Starpoint took a 25-point lead with one question left. Needing to correctly answer the last 10 point question, Isaac buzzed in and answered with the correct answer and then received a bonus question worth 20 points.”

Alex came up with the correct answer to who was the first U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The answer was Teddy Roosevelt and the team pulled out the win by a score of 170-165!”

The team is currently done for the season, but will be competing in Masterminds, which is another quiz competition. The varsity team is currently in first place in a league with Albion, Holley, Kendall, Pembroke and Elba. The JV team is also in first place in their league and the middle school team is tied for first.

“We have a lot of dedicated students involved in Masterminds and Quizbowl,” Mr. Dole said. “They show up to practice, enjoy competition and take school and learning seriously.”