Members of the Scholastic Bowl team sit at their stations before the start of round two of Battle of the Brains on Jan. 17, 2024. From left to right: sophomore Clark Smith, junior Jackson Crickard, senior and captain Meilin Ranjan and senior Samuel Kidd. Photo used with permission from Miranda Blaser.

Fresh off their Virginia State Championship win, Scholastic Bowl team members clinched their second win in Battle of the Brains against Western Branch High School.

The team consisted of seniors Meilin Ranjan and Samuel Kidd, who returned from the first round, as well as junior Jackson Crickard and sophomore Clark Smith.

“I really enjoyed it even though the pressure of being on TV made me nervous,” said Clark.

After the first round, which consisted of toss-up questions, the score was 120 (Ocean Lakes) to 30 (Western Branch). 

The second round was a team round, where each team chose a category of questions to answer together in a specific amount of time. There were three categories to choose from: “Biology Terms Starting With ‘M,’” “U.S. Supreme Court Justices” and “Famous Pairs.”

“The biggest strategy that we use is just going with the ‘goofy’ category in the category round unless we really know there’s a category that we would ace,” said Jackson. “The goofy categories have unusual names. They tend to be simpler and do not require super deep knowledge.”

Accordingly, the team chose the “Famous Pairs” category, where the host gave the name of one person from a famous pair, and the team had to come up with the other. The team gained 40 extra points to result in a total of 160 points after the second round.

Western Branch chose the category “Biology Terms Starting with ‘M.’” They answered eight out of 10 questions correctly to increase their score to 65.

After that, the toss-up questions ensued. Ocean Lakes retained a comfortable lead throughout the round, finishing with a total score of 540 in comparison to Western Branch’s 95 points.

“Battle of the Brains is a lot faster-paced than Scholastic Bowl, which is a nice refresher,” said Clark.

The episode officially aired on March 9, 2024. To watch the entire match, click here.

The next round will air on April 20. 

“I’ve been really happy with how the team has been playing,” said Jackson. “Everyone on the team does really well, and I would not want anyone to change what they are doing.”