Members of the Haywood Community College Outdoor Club recently earned first place in the Academic Quiz Bowl held at the 2002 Southeastern Wildlife Conclave. HCC competed against 17 four-year universities to win the first-place title.

Murray State University hosted this year’s Conclave at Lake Barkley State Resort Park in western Kentucky.

The Quiz Bowl involves four-student teams from each school in a double elimination tournament. Questions are drawn from a broad variety of subjects such as general biology, genetics, wildlife management, and wildlife techniques. After a slow start, the team came from behind by 80 points to beat the University of Tennessee at Knoxville with a final score of 110-90. Quiz bowl team members were Nick McCracken, Nick Shaver, Shenan Thompson and Robert Price.

“At first we were a little intimidated, but after the first match, I realized that we were very prepared. The other universities almost seemed embarrassed to be beaten by the only community college team in the competition,” said team member Nick Shaver.

Team member Robert Price said that the team started preparing in January for the competition.

“I think that we had more practical working knowledge, a lot more hands-on, than the university teams.”

The HCC team received second place overall in the total competition because of high scores received in all competition categories. Jordan Miller took first place with a perfect score in archery. Seth Palmer, Dustyn Reece, Josh Brooks and Rock Hilton took second place (with less than one-second time difference with the first place UT team) in the obstacle course and Melanie Handford took third place in the photography competition.

Seven years ago, at the invitation of the Wildlife Society, HCC became the first two-year school in the nation to receive a charter for a Student Chapter of the Wildlife Society. HCC will host the 2003 Southwestern Wildlife Conclave. For more information about the Fish and Wildlife Management program at Haywood Community College contact the Natural Resources Department at 627.4561.