Despite having to compete against schools with much larger programs, Quiz Bowl adviser Peter Dangerfield said he was pleased with the results and is excited for the Quiz Bowl team to participate in State.

“We finished third in the South division. I am pretty happy with that,” Dangerfield said. “We finished behind teams from Wayzata and Eden Prairie, but both of those are considered powerhouse teams in the state.”

According to Dangerfield, in order to qualify for State, Park had to be successful throughout the tournament series.

“There are Thursday night tournaments,” Dangerfield said. “For Minnesota Quiz Bowl, there are three different regions: East, West and South, and if you finished in the top tournament of your pool play, you advance to State.”

Quiz Bowl captain, senior Cailey Hansen-Mahoney, said the team will prepare for State by continuing with normal practices and putting together the best group to represent Park at State.

“We’re continuing our regular practices, and for State you only get to send four to five players, so we’re just trying to make sure that we have the best possible team to give us a good shot,” Hansen-Mahoney said.

Dangerfield said he is looking forward to seeing how Park compares with teams from similarly sized schools.

“It’s hard when you play against teams of the caliber of Eden Prairie, Wayzata because their programs are huge,” Dangerfield said. “I want to see how we compete against other schools like Chanhassen, Chaska — those schools that are more our size.”

According to Dangerfield, in the past four years that he has been the adviser, Park’s program has expanded significantly, which has allowed the team to become more successful.

“Compared to other years, we are a much deeper program. We have two to three teams that are full of seniors that can really compete at a high level, whereas when I started we only had one team,” Dangerfield said.

Hansen-Mahoney said the team has been able to compete at a higher level due to becoming more knowledgeable about the game.

“I think that during this year we just figured out better how to play, and how to be strategic when you play. We understand a lot better what the rules are and (what the) strategies are,” Hansen-Mahoney said.

The State tournament will be held Feb. 14 at Burnsville High School, according to Hansen-Mahoney.