Maine World Quest Champions, left to right: Amina Meziani, Mackenzie McHatton, Mizuki Ishida and Sage Tocci.

Four teams comprised of four students each from Lake Region High School competed in the Maine Academic WorldQuest Competition on Wednesday, Feb. 6.

This competition is put on by the World Affairs Council of Maine and is billed as “the ultimate international knowledge competition” with the goal of improving students’ awareness of other countries and the United States' relationship with them.

Twenty-six teams, including high school, college, and cooperate groups competed this year at the event hosted at Greely High School.

Lake Region High School WorldQuest advisors Scott Nye and Jennie Burnette are proud to announce that one of their participating teams earned first place among high school teams and overall runners-up.

At the end of six rounds, each consisting of ten questions, there was a tie for first place among high school teams. The tie-breaking round resulted in yet another tie; finally, in a round of “sudden death,” LRHS took the trophy by correctly answering a question the other team could not answer. The winning team members are: Amina Meziani, Mizuki Ishida, Sage Tocci and Mackenzie McHatton.

As Maine high school champions, this team has earned the prestigious opportunity to compete at the national level WorldQuest competition in Washington, D.C. this spring, pending fundraising.

Other participants from LRHS were: Nolan Abrams, Adam Cook, Sean Edwards, Brandan George, Brennan Lane, Elizabeth Schreiber, Brody Stofflet and Aime Worcester.

The WorldQuest Competitions are comprised of knowledge of world and international affairs trivia. The Maine event included the following categories: Current Events; Geography; Afghanistan/Pakistan; U.S. Economic Competitiveness; U.S. Education: Competing Globally; and UN Millennium Goals: Environmental Sustainability.

Students spent five months studying these topics in depth with their teacher-advisors and devoted much of their personal time after school to reading, studying, teaching each other, and preparing for this competition.

After the state competition, students on the winning team were told to take a break from WorldQuest. Despite this request, they were caught printing out hundreds of pages of study guides and those on the supporting teams were ready to help quiz the team on new material. Their dedication to the academic team and competition has been incomparable.

More categories of topics and further study of those included in the Maine competition will be incorporated in the national competition, which will be April 27 in Washington, D.C. Students will continue and expand upon their studying in the upcoming month, in hopes of supporting the winning team in their potential trip to this competition.