Students at James E. Taylor high School participated in the Quizbowl  2021 High School National Championship Tournament which was held virtually this year. The academic competition saw 29 Texas teams, including the Taylor students participate this year.

“There were some tense moments.  James E. Taylor defeated BASIS Silicon Valley from San Jose, California by the narrow margin of 225-220 during round seven and suffered a heartbreakingly narrow loss to Texas Math and Science, 245-230 during round 12,” said Dwight Kidder of National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC, the organization that hosts Quizbowl.

Team members Emma Hopkins, Kate Hopkins, Mitchell Shadden, Katie Sturzu, and Jed Wang were coached by Christopher J. Harris.

While the team’s shot at the title ended with their round 12 loss, Shadden was honored as an all-star for correctly answering 60 tossup questions – 18 of them for “power” or answering so early as to earn extra points in the preliminary round. Overall, Taylor finished 73rd.

The 2021 event featured 224 teams from 32 states, China, Singapore and South Korea. Barrington High School of Barrington Ill. Took the championship.