The audience falls silent with anticipation as host Jeremiah Davis announces the last question of the Black History Bowl. After playing to a tie in regulation, junior and sophomore contestants sit tensely at their buzzers waiting to answer the sudden death bonus question and, with it, win the title of Black History Bowl Champions.

“Besides the long jump, what other events was Carl Lewis known for?”

Almost immediately, junior Freddie Johnson hits the buzzer and answers, “He was known for the 100 meter sprint, 200 meter sprint, 4×200 meter relay and 4×100 meter relay.”

And with that, the junior class took home the win and $150 to their class fund.

The annual Black History Bowl was held on Feb. 18 in the auditorium, with dozens of students and classes packed into the main level floor as well as the balcony.

The Black History Bowl is an event in which student representatives from each class compete in a questionnaire relevant to black history. These contestants were given material to study a month ahead of time to prepare for the event.

This year, there were six categories: Sports, Government and Politics, Science and Medicine, Great African Americans, Music and the toss-up section where any team can answer.

The freshman team consisted of Omnia Saed, Elisha Musih, Jordan Scroggins and Michael Dardin. The sophomore team consisted of Alexis Garretson, Olivia Buckley, Thien Mai and alternate Robert Truong. The junior team consisted of Johnson, Bryna Harrod, Andy Tran and alternate Quan Ngo. The senior team consisted of Gabe Litvin, Zoha Khan, Sandra Lee and alternate Kelvin Galos.

The junior team emerged victorious with a score of 280 points, while the sophomores were in a close second with 260 points. The freshman took third with 80 points and the seniors finished in last with -20 points.

After the final Music section, Davis announced the tie between the sophomores and the juniors, and that they would both have a final showdown for the win with a new question that anyone on those two teams could answer.

“Good job to the juniors; they studied hard,” the sophomore team said after the showdown.

“[It was a] great bowl, [the] kids were absolutely wonderful. We had a lot of help from leadership and teachers and the crowd was great,” Kathlyn Berry said. Berry is the sponsor of the Black Cultural Awareness Association and was the organizer of the event.

The crowd was great, breaking into a chant to bring senior alternate Galos back at one point, and were entertained with Davis dancing and singing to an LL Cool J song.