NOSB Team Takes Second in Region
On Saturday the Greenhills National Ocean Science Bowl (NOSB) varsity team took second place in the regional competition, the “Great Lakes Bowl,” held at the University of Michigan. The team earned a $600 cash prize and a half-day science cruise for the team on the schooner Inland Seas based in Sutton’s Bay north of Traverse City.
Science teacher and NOSB coach Deano Smith gives a detailed account of Saturday’s exciting action:
“They had ranked as number one seed after a morning round-robin set and handily climbed to the finals in the ensuing single-elimination tournament. The final round was a nail-biter, with the team trailing by 13 points at the half. They fought their way back and were ahead 39 to 37 against the 14-year regional champion powerhouse Dexter High School. Thirty seconds remained on the clock as the judge moved to the final question. It became clear that he wouldn’t be able to finish reading the question and answers, meaning the round would end with us as the champions. When only part of the question had been read, Dexter buzzed in with two seconds on the clock, interrupting the question, and guessed a multiple choice letter. By the tournament rules, interrupting allows an answer even if the time runs out, and they had a one in four chance. The judge looked down, back up, down again, and then announced ‘correct,’ giving Dexter four points and
the win. Our team, while disappointed, has vowed to be so far ahead next year that there is no way it can happen again!
The JV team also made a superb showing, seeding as number 10 out of 16 with a particularly impressive 54 to 39 win in the first round of the morning. They lost a hard-fought battle with Berkley High School, a team of mostly seniors with three years NOSB experience, in the first elimination round.”
The Greenhills NOSB A-Team (varsity) includes Allison Hogikyan ’13, Henry Aspegren ’13, Olivia
Post ’12, David Barbehenn ’13, and Frank Fazekas ’15. The B-team (JV) is Gabi Kaplan ’12, Justine
Robinson ’13, Emily Wu ’13, Tony Opipari ’14, and Brendan Kelley-Bukovac ’14. Studying with the
team all year and present supporting but not competing directly was Blake Martin ’12. The team is coached by Greenhills science teacher Deano Smith, who served as a U.S. Navy nuclear submariner officer, a deep submersible pilot, and as a research scientist at the Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratories prior to joining the Greenhills faculty in 2007.
