Matteo Ventresca '25
Seniors Sebastian Reed and Tanush Talekar hold sophomore Clark Kerkstra with the trophy after the match.
With their faces planted in books, quizzing each other on the bus before the match, Haven’s Hi-Q team prepared to compete against Marple Newtown and Delaware County Christian School for the Delco Hi-Q championship.
The Wednesday, March 12 victory marks the second-ever championship trophy for Haven’s Hi-Q team and the team’s first championship appearance since 2014 in the oldest continuous academic quiz competition in the U.S.
Interim Superintendent Dr. James Scanlon, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Sharon Baddick, State Sen. Tim Kearney, and an auditorium full of Marple Newtown students were in attendance.
The match started with the Tigers gaining an eight-point lead within the first couple of questions. The Panthers were unable to pull ahead, ending the match with 50 points for the Tigers, 30 points for the Knights, and 45 points for the Panthers.
However, Hi-Q has a five-minute appeal process. Teams can choose to appeal the ruling for a question by filling out a form after the end of the match.
“They then get the author of the question on the phone, and they ask them whether your answer is valid,” senior Sebastian Reed said. “If it is, you get all the points you would have gotten. If it isn’t, you lose two points from your score.”
The Panthers appealed two science-related questions: one physics question worth four points and another biology question worth one point. Successfully appealing meant that the score would be tied 50-50 between the Tigers and the Panthers, causing a special tiebreaker round.
“When I saw the Quizmaster, the Hi-Q director, and some of the Hi-Q staff go behind the curtain, I asked the students to get seated right away and to be prepared because we’re doing this,” Hi-Q advisor and physics teacher Mr. Bill Rothenbach said.
When the appeals were announced successful by Quizmaster Rick Durante, the game had to advance to the tiebreaker round.
“My initial reaction was, ‘Oh my god. I have to sit back down on this stage and stay up here for another 15 to 20 minutes,’” Reed said. “After that, my reaction was, ‘Clark [Kerkstra] is here, we’re going to be alright.’”
The tiebreaker rounds were six questions, and each team had to write their answers on paper and hand it to the judges. In the case of two tied tiebreaker rounds, both teams would win first place.
The first tiebreaker round ended in a 3-3 tie.
The second round started in favor of the Tigers, as they were up by one point after correctly answering an American History question. Sophomore Clark Kerkstra answered the third question, a geography question, correctly, tying up the game. No one answered correctly on the fourth and sixth questions in Physics and Literature.
The fifth question, however, has a story.
On Wednesday, March 5, Haven’s Mock Trial team competed in their championship match, losing to the Tigers. Before the competition, according to Kerkstra, the Mock Trial coach said that lawyers strive to be the best in the courtroom and beat each other, and then afterward, they’re the best of friends—quoting “The Taming of the Shrew,” a play by William Shakespeare.
On March 12, the quizmaster asked a question about the character Bianca’s suitors in that same play.
Reed specializes in literature and Shakespeare—but he did not know the answer.
“In double overtime, the Shakespeare question… I don’t read Shakespeare. This guy [Reed] reads Shakespeare. This is the first thing in the entire competition that he doesn’t know because it’s a really obscure line,” Kerkstra said. “So, the only reason I knew that was because of Mock Trial and our attorney coach.”
Reed remembers Kerkstra telling him that he knew the answer.
“I put my head down, and I was like, ‘I don’t know.’ Then, I looked to my right, and Clark Kerkstra was grabbing my shoulder. He’s going, ‘I know this. I know this,’” Reed said. “That has to be the most cinematic moment I’ve ever had at one of these.”
The correct answer, ‘lawyers,’ meant the Panthers were the 2025 Delco Hi-Q champions.
“To be honest, I expected us to get trounced by both teams in the regular rounds. So winning in the last question of the last tiebreaker feels pretty crazy,” Reed said.
The Hi-Q team received the Donna Zerby Delco Hi-Q Championship trophy along with a $3,000 check from the Franklin Mint Foundation.
“I love these guys, and I’m so glad that I got to do this with them, as much as I complained about this club every day of my life for the last year,” Reed said.
The Panthers will advance to the national competition over Zoom on Friday, April 4, facing teams from Washington State and Alabama.