Lamar scores major victory at Student Quiz Bowl
Team Lamar emerged as the state winner in the TACSM Student Quiz Bowl held February 26 in Austin. Lamar’s team of four health and kinesiology students participated in the annual competition hosted by the Texas chapter of American College of Sports Medicine, the leading organization in the world in sports medicine, according to Rick Carter, professor of health and kinesiology, and the team’s advisor.
“This is the second year we have participated in the Quiz Bowl competition and these students showed they were the best in Texas,” Carter said. “The last two years, the winning team from the Texas region has won the national competition, so these students have a lot of pressure on them.”
The team, comprised of Catherine Wu, Lubbock; Kollin Kahler, Waco; George Urebe, Houston and Hannah Boyett from Jasper, are all exercise science/fitness management majors. They will travel to San Diego and compete in the nation competition May 26-30. Twelve regional winning teams will compete before an expected audience of more than 25,000. Kahler and Wu participated on the 2014 Quiz Bowl team.
“The Department of Health and Kinesiology does a very good job of preparing us for the same sort of questions the ASCM would ask in the Quiz Bowl,” said Kahler. “Part of our success is due to studying the Quiz Bowl guidelines, but the majority is due to the three or four years of health and kinesiology preparation in the classroom. We showed that Lamar can compete with any school in the state, especially in sports medicine.”
More than 20 Texas university teams competed in the Quiz Bowl, included the University of Texas, Texas A&M University, Baylor University, University of Texas at El Paso, and Texas Christian University. The competition is a Jeopardy-style format with teams answering questions on sports medicine topics such as nutrition, cardiovascular physiology, electrocardiogram, environmental physiology and anatomy.
ACSM is a multi-disciplinary professional and scientific society dedicated to the generation and dissemination of knowledge concerning the motivations, responses, adaptations and health aspects of persons engaged in sports and exercise.