In October 2022, a cohort of Classical Academy students met each other for the first time at a television station to compete on a local quiz show.

On Friday, they met in Atlanta to compete in the National Academic Quiz Tournament’s 2024 High School National Championship.

Their rapid ascent up the national ranks is the result of a recent push by the school and a collective interest among each other.

“When I first arrived at the TV station, I was like, ‘Why am I doing this?’” Classical Academy senior Kai Morton said. “I don’t know any of these people.”

Like his future teammates, Morton arrived on the TV set following an open call by their school and ultimately finished in second place on FOX21/SOCO CW’s Rocky Mountain Quiz Kids.

Following this initial competition, the contestants regrouped at school into a full-fledged team where they began meeting and learning the rules and regulations of both the National Academic Quiz Tournaments and Knowledge Bowls.

The team, now comprised of 11 members in its second year, are among 320 across the country who are representing their schools at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis and the Hilton Atlanta this weekend.

In the vein of other quiz shows like Jeopardy, contestants are asked questions from a variety of categories that range from the standard high school curriculum to esoteric topics to pop culture trivia.

Where the competitions differ from Jeopardy is the team format. Four members are active on any given team and can be subbed out throughout the course of a game.

Question: What are the only confirmed marine predators of moose?

Answer: Orcas

Questions like this are common in the tournaments for including information that one teammate might know, but all teammates likely wouldn’t. Other subjects have varied from contemporary world literature to lawn mowers to “The X-Files.”

For Classical Academy’s 11 teammates, comprised of freshmen through senior students, their variety of age, interests and expertise has given them an edge in regional and state competitions.

“We have a variety of students on our team, which I think is why we’ve been so successful,” team coach Melissa Adams said. “We have students in sports, on speech and debate and other clubs and that’s pretty common throughout our school. Our students don’t fit into a single box.”

Before they knew it, they were contending with perennial powerhouses in the state like Grand Junction High and Alamosa High.

Adams said they learned early on how these more established teams had refined strategies like responding to questions quickly, communicating with teammates via hand signals and having teammates specialized in certain categories.

“We had no idea what we were doing at first,” she said. “But we learned early on a lot of the strategies that go into these competitions and how teams win consistently.”

After winning second place in the Colorado Springs qualifying tournament in December, Classical Academy punched their ticket to Atlanta.

“I am so proud of everything this team accomplished being that it was the inaugural year of the Knowledge Bowl/Quiz Kids Team and excited for them to experience Nationals,” Classical Academy High School principal Sean Shields said.

Facing even greater competition over the holiday weekend, the team is currently brushing up on questions from previous tournaments. They say they’re ready to compete but to also learn from top competition across the country.

Aiden Adams said that he’s proud of their accomplishments to date because of the spotlight the competition puts on academics specifically when compared to other competing school clubs that typically get celebrated.

“There’s a lot of teams in Colorado Springs that rank ahead of us in things like sports or robotics,” he said. “But we’re at the top in this.”

Tournament results will be updated throughout the three days of competition on the NQT’s official website.