Madelyn Holbrook from UT Martin poses with her quiz bowl teammates after their victory on February 6 for the SAEA quiz bowl. | Photo / Rachna Tewari
A UT Martin student was a member of the winning quiz bowl team at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association meeting on Feb. 6 in Oklahoma City, OK.
Madelyn Holbrook, a junior Plant and Soil Science major, and her two teammates from West Texas A&M and University of Kentucky competed in several rounds across two days. What was just supposed to be a fun way to network turned into something far surpassing Holbrook’s expectations.
After one loss in the semifinals on the second day, Holbrook and her teammates survived double-elimination to win the competition.
“I didn’t think I would go anywhere close to being in the championship because I’m not an [economics] major,” says Holbrook. “My teammates definitely picked up a lot of the slack with the [economics] and business questions, but I did really well with the trivia questions.”
As part of an agricultural economics conference, the quiz bowl’s material is based mostly on finance, marketing and economics concepts. One category of each game is dedicated to ‘potpourri’ questions, including topics like state facts, sports trivia and music.
Holbrook and her teammates each received $300 checks from the Association for their quiz bowl victory. As a first-time competitor, Holbrook is also the first UT Martin student in recent history to significantly progress in the game.
“It’s been about four years since we had a student place in the top three teams for the SAEA quiz bowl,” says Dr. Joey Mehlhorn, a UT Martin agribusiness professor.
Each February, UT Martin agribusiness faculty members take approximately 10 students to SAEA. In addition to the competition, students also network with students and professionals from across the country and present faculty-assisted research to professional audiences, Mehlhorn added.
“It was fun, and I got to meet a lot more people than I would’ve at that conference had I not done quiz bowl. And I got $300 in prize money,” says Holbrook.
