Battle of the Wits

Nov 13, 2007



Returning Battle of the Wits champion Joshua Held reclaimed his title and $100 at the second annual Trinity academic triathlon Tuesday.

Mathematics Professor and television’s Millionaire contestant Paul Bialek emceed the event, sponsored by Student Government Association (SGA) and organized by Academic Life Director Laura Gisler.

Thirty student contestants took the Lew Student Center stage for the first round spell-off. The official word list was compiled from the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

“Venom” was the first word, and first eliminated was Eddie Pascual, defeated by a calorie-free vegetable.

“C-E-L-L-E-R-Y,” spelled Pascual, who volunteered for the event to earn extra credit points in Bialek’s calculus class.

Pascual joined the hundred or so spectators who feasted on a free assortment of Buffalo Wild take-out wings, potato wedges, salad, brownies and beverages. Those who attended were also offered free raffle tickets for the chance to win four $5 Starbucks giftcards if they could answer correctly random Trinity trivia.

Moral standards were also tested as a contestant conceded that he accidentally misspelled “paradigm” with an “n” instead of an “m.” The judges’ panel was uncertain of the misspelling because of the contestants’ speedy correction.

Sitting in on the panel were Academic Dean Steve Pointer, Senior Vice President for Student Affairs Coffee Washington, Professor of English William Graddy, and Professor of Biblical Studies Samir Massouh.

Trinity Hall Resident Assistant Laura Costerisan was flawless and impressive in the Spelling Bee round, securing one of the six positions for the second round: Team Trivia. When a contestant successfuly spelled a word, Bialek would shake his head as he proclaimed “That is correct!” – a ruse he may have learned from Millionaire and The View host Meredith Vieira. When a contestant misspelled a word, Bialek would console them with phrases like, “That was a tough one” and “I’m sorry, the correct spelling is…”

Held credited his sophomore biology course after dominating “comchidic” (Spelling?), a word that sent Bialek into the Merriam-Webster Third Internaional dictionary for accurate pronunciation.

Despite misspelling “cheroot” C-H-E-R-O-U-T, and a few other words during a spell-off against Christina Jensen, Held earned himself a spot on Team 1 for the second round competition.

The six finalists for Team Trivia were: Team One: Joel Sanford, Joshua Held, and Joshua Kalb and Team Two: Christina Jensen, David Rabe, and Laura Costerisan. This round played similar to Jeopardy and included categories reminiscent of academic courses offered at Trinity.

“What is Cold Family?” contributed Laura Costerisan when Team Two was to name a slide of a Pablo Picasso painting of the Blue Period. The correct question was “What is The Tragedy?”

“Samir Massouh wrote the Old Testament,” said Bialek during a Bible questioned that was disputed.

The contestants, judges and hosts were not the only ones having a good time. Spectators entertained and impressed themselves as they played along from the audience, spelling the handful of words they recognized and the random trivia they happened to know the answers to.

Sanford, Held and Kalb won the Team Trivia round. The three finalists advanced to the third and final round: Oral Defense.

Kalb went first and struggled through an issue concerning retail and consumption tax, arguably the toughest topic of the night. The question was hard, he said, and he felt awful, although his glowing demeanor told otherwise as he exited the Lew with his arm over the shoulder of brother Ben Kalb.

Sanford, second, addressed the global warming issue lightly and with casual confidence. His performance sufficed for second place and $50.

And Held spoke smoothly and coherently as he talked about Presidential Candidates, using attractive hand gestures, volume, pitch and rate while delivering his carefully constructed answer – however careful one can construct an answer in a minute and a half.

Next for SGA is Trinity’s coed Dodgeball Tournament scheduled Sunday Dec 2 at 7pm. Teams of 6-10 players can sign-up in the Lew Student Center since Monday. First prize is $300.