CHS takes first in state at Knowledge Bowl (includes slideshow)

The winning question:  What quadrant is the polar coordinate 3, 2pi / 3?  Answer: Second.

“I’m very proud of this year’s state Knowledge Bowl team,” said Omar Sankari, CHS language arts teacher and Knowledge Bowl coach. “They are a great, smart bunch of students and they worked hard for and deserved their big win at state.”

The championship was a suspenseful tiebreaker round, Sankari said.

“After dominating the morning competition, Columbia went into the afternoon semifinal rounds strong,” he said. The team easily won its semifinal round against Granite Falls and Medical Lake, putting them in the running for first, second or third in state among the 1A schools.

“We went up against Klahowya and Colville for the championship,” he continued. “Klahowya led during much of the 50-question regular final championship round by as much as five points. Colville eventually fell behind, and Columbia correctly answered multiple questions in a row to tie with Klahowya on the very last question of the regular final round, 14-14.”

This led to a final tiebreaker round of 10 questions, with the winner taking the championship.

“Columbia answered the first question correctly, and then neither team got a correct answer until Klahowya tied it up at question 7 or 8,” he said. “With only two questions to go, Columbia followed up on an incorrect answer to a math question by Klahowya to take the lead by one point. Neither team got the last question of the tiebreaker round correct, so Columbia won the tiebreaker round over Klahowya, 2-1, to become 2025 state 1A knowledge bowl champions.”

This is the best — that anyone can remember — a CHS Knowledge Bowl team has done at state. Other than this year, the closest one of Sankari’s teams have come in his 20-ish years of coaching is fifth place (twice, in 2016 and 2018); teams have also placed sixth, seventh, eighth (twice) and ninth since he’s been coaching.

Though this is CHS’ first state Knowledge Bowl championship, teams have done well at regionals in Sankari’s time as coach: Competing against other Southwest Washington 1A schools, teams have taken first three times (including this year), second place five times, and third place multiple times.

“I’d like to thank the White Salmon Valley School District and Columbia High School for all their support for knowledge bowl over the years,” he said.