There was tension throughout the championship competition, Croswell said.
“At the end of their semifinal oral round, the team was tied with North Thurston, forcing a tiebreaker session. They were still tied at the end of the first tiebreaker set, and the end of the next tiebreaker found the two teams tied even still. However, the Camas team decided to officially challenge one of the questions in which their answer had been ruled incorrect. Their challenge was accepted and their point was granted, which earned them the right to advance to the championship oral round.
“In the championship oral round, three very good teams — Camas, Charles Wright Academy, and Port Angeles — were engaged in a close match. … At question 40 of 50, the teams were tied at 10 points. By question 45, Port Angeles had forged ahead, but the Camas team was able to tie it up with one question remaining. As the last question was read aloud by the reader/judge, a moment came when the teams seemed to recognize the answer all at once, and they buzzed in. The Camas team got in first, discussed it, offered their correct answer, and won the state championship.
It was a rewarding win for the team members and Coach Croswell.
“I have been coaching Knowledge Bowl at Camas since 1986, have been the coordinator for ESD 112 for many of those years, and state coordinator since 1999. This is the first time I can recall that both the 4A state championship (Skyview High School) and the 3A state championship (Camas) were earned by teams from Clark County in the same year. That is fantastic, and speaks to the strength of the schools and knowledge bowl teams in our area.”