Montgomery Area School District joined 153 of the top quiz bowl teams from small public high schools at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare Chicago for the 2025 Small School National Championship Tournament over the weekend to determine who was the best.

The team, in the Traditional Public Schools Division, was captained by Nova Bartlett, who was joined by Audrey Cook, John Grosso, Santino Williams and Coach Kelly Kurtz.

Montgomery finished the preliminary rounds with a 3-7 record.

There were some tense moments. Montgomery suffered a heartbreakingly narrow loss to Ottawa Hills from Toledo, Ohio, 145-140 during round 3; defeated Logan-Magnolia from Iowa by the narrow margin of 165-145 during round 4; and suffered another narrow loss to Morris B from Oklahoma, 190-185 during round 11.

The team’s shot at the playoffs ended when they lost to Russell B from Kentucky in round 8.

Montgomery was one of five Pennsylvania teams competing at the national championship.

Quiz bowl is a competitive, academic, interscholastic activity for teams of four students. Quiz bowl teams use buzzers to answer questions about science, math, history, literature, mythology, geography, social science, current events, sports and popular culture.

The matches feature a blend of individual competition and team collaboration, since no individual player is likely to be an expert in all subject areas.

Participation in quiz bowl both reinforces lessons from the classroom and encourages players to develop new intellectual interests.