Riverside’s Battle of the Books (BoB) team finished second in the annual Durham County competition.
The event normally takes place in person, but due to the pandemic students competed virtually on February 18 from 9 in the morning to almost 4 .
Riverside’s club took on every single high school in Durham County twice during the event. There were 14 rounds and they had to answer 12 trivia questions per round about 15 different books.
“It was a double round robin, meaning the home team answered the first line, the visitor team answered the second line,” said Tara Gold, Riverside media coordinator and BoB coach. “If the team doesn’t get their question, the other team can take it on as a rebound and answer the question.
Riverside finished second overall, losing only to Durham School of the Arts (DSA).
“Riverside wanted to win very badly,” Gold said. “We were ahead [at lunchtime]. DSA is a really competitive team and we also beat them and both of the rounds we played against them. We ended up losing by only 12 points, which is four questions. I think at that point, it just comes down to a matter of luck and they got a little more luck than we did.”
The near-victory left Riverside’s competitors excited to compete again next year.
“We did pretty well,” said Junior Caileigh Ressler. “I think that we definitely now know what we need to do next year. Also, we were kind of a new team, no seniors. I think after COVID It was kind of just a big rebuilding of a strong team. DSA I had a lot of seniors that were really strong. “
“I think next year we’ll probably be a little more competitive and a little more motivated,” said Junior Jack Weinard. “ Even though I think we had some unlucky rounds, we had a really good competition. We do have some stuff that we can work on next season.”
Gold also said that the team is already working hard to get ahead for next year.
“Our team is very motivated to beat DSA next year, so they have already started reading from next year’s list,” she said. “Because DSA has to go to the regionals, they’re still reading from the list of books from this year. So we get two months ahead of them to start reading on the new list.”
