MOUNT VERNON — One of the teams at Mount Vernon High School doesn’t get much recognition — the In the Know academic team — but it is smoking through the competition so far this year.
It won a first-round match against Tree of Life, and blew Pickerington North away in the second round, scoring nearly twice as many points as North. In that match, Pickerington North earned 370 points, which is what the winning team often earns at WOSU@COSI where the competition is held. However, the MVHS In the Know academic team — Michael Murray, Josh Campbell, Conor Narovec and Joe Kasper — had a historic win over Pickerington North. They earned the highest score of any MVHS In The Know team in at least 11 years, an astonishing 675 points.
“That’s the highest score I have ever seen,” said coach Rob Fetters, “whether against us or for us. Usually the teams at WOSU win with 370 points. But this time, we did even better.”
The In the Know competition starts with 64 teams and goes single-elimination tournament style until two schools are left to face off against each other in the final round.
Questions cover the general Ohio high school curriculum, and then some. Points are determined by the difficulty of the questions being answered. Team members may not confer on the answers.
MVHS In the Know team members include Andrew Clarkson Jr., Walker Griggs, Weston Uram, Josh Campbell, Joe Kasper, Levi Fawcett, Ian Clarkson, Casey Long, Benjamin Gillen, Andre Dessert, Jacob Pido, Melissa Gallogly, Karinne Bessette, Michael Murray, Conor Narovec and Alexa McDonald. Since only four individuals can compete in the contest rounds, they have a competition among themselves to see who will represent the school in each match. That means different scholars may be on the hot seat for each round.
A senior, Narovec has served on the In the Know team since his sophomore year. “It was something I thought I might be good at,” he said, “and I was interested so I kept on with it.”
Although all team members have a responsibility for general knowledge, they do unofficially specialize in certain areas.
“We each kind of know what we’re good at,” said Narovec. “Josh [Campbell] is good at mythology. I get a lot of literature questions. Joe [Kasper] is good at math questions. Michael [Murray] would be history.”
Campbell, a junior, has been on the team since his freshman year. He said all team members will be boning up on world flags and presidential quotations before the next match.
Constitutional amendments will also be reviewed, added Fetters.
The next match will be against Worthington Kilbourne on Jan. 18. Air dates have not yet been announced.
