Lu selected to compete in the Quiz Tournaments’ national championship

Quick, what do “Jeopardy!” host Ken Jennings and Culver Military Academy second-classman Albert Lu have in common?

They both have shown they are outstanding Quiz Bowl competitors. Jennings competed in college on Brigham Young University’s Quiz Bowl team, while Lu’s ability to recall information quickly during Quiz Bowl competitions earned him an invitation to compete in the National Academic Quiz Tournaments’ Individual Player National Championship Tournament in Rosemont, Illinois, on April 6.

Lu is among 260 students picked nationally to compete because he scored so well as part of Culver Academies’ Quiz Bowl team during regional competition.

Senior humanities instructor Laura Ricketts, who coaches Culver’s Quiz Bowl team, said what sets Lu apart is he’s confident enough to hit the button and answer quickly before the full question is asked, earning more points for his team.

“Albert is the full deal because he’s smart, he enjoys the competition to buzz in first and he’s confident,” Ricketts said. “I would describe him as a Renaissance man because he also enjoys the theater and he also competes in fencing. He’s willing to try anything, which is where his confidence comes from.”

Each member of a four-person Quiz Bowl team specializes in one or two areas. Lu’s specialty is science, his favorite subject in school. His parents are both associate professors researching cancer in the department of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame.

“Because I’m interested in science, I seek opportunities to read science books and learn about science outside the classroom. That information is most important for me for Quiz Bowl,” Lu said. “I don’t study specifically for quiz bowl. It’s more like the information I learn in my life just naturally applies itself to Quiz Bowl.”

He also has a strong knowledge of mythology.

Quiz bowl questions cover topics such as science, math, history, literature, mythology, geography, social science, current events, sports and popular culture.

 

The Culver Quiz Bowl team of Lu, Ray (Xinlang) Fan ’25, Irene (Sau Fong) Lin ’25, Jason (Junxin) Tang ’25, Kevin (Haoxiang) Zhang ’25, Nicholas Besachio ’26, Magnus McCallister ’28, Emma Ulis ’28, and team manager Nicholas Langenberg ’28 was seeded eighth at the Indiana state tournament on March 8 but did not surge higher so they failed to advance. There were other team members who couldn’t compete because of limits on the number of contestants on a team.

Culver was invited to compete as a team at the nationals at the end of May but declined the invitation because of Memorial Day events and graduation events on campus.

Ricketts said Lu isn’t afraid to jump in on any category.

“That’s necessary for competing as an individual,” Rickets said.

Lu credits Culver for helping him prepare for the competition.

“I’m a much better Quiz Bowl player because at Culver I can take hard classes, and I’m immersed in a scholarly aspect here at Culver,” he said.

He said Advanced Placement Chemistry has been particularly helpful, but he’s also taken some unique classes at Culver, such as “Mission to Mars: The Biology and Chemistry of Living on Mars.”

“I’ve taken a lot of physics classes, chemistry classes. I use that information in Quiz Bowl,” Lu said.

He showed off that knowledge during a recent Quiz Bowl competition when he heard the word “fulgurites” in the first five words of a question. He buzzed in and correctly answered “lightning.”

By knowing so quickly that fulgurites are the formations that occur when lightning strikes the ground, fusing sand, rock or soil together, Lu earned the maximum 15 points.

Ricketts said that’s what makes Lu such an outstanding Quiz Bowl player, he’s ready to give an answer with little information available.

 

 

Lu said he just naturally has a good memory. He said he doesn’t study for Quiz Bowl, but he does practice with the team under tournament conditions when they go over old questions and buzz in to answer.

“We learn facts from the questions because there are some recurring motifs, recurring information. But a lot of what Quiz Bowl is about is drawing from your personal life and your scholarly life,” Lu said.

The competition day on April 6 will begin with six seeding rounds; the top players will then compete in elimination rounds to determine the overall winner.

Lu said he might study a bit more for the individual competition because he needs to be more rounded.

“I need to pick up some slack in literature and history, so for that, I might review a bit just to know about that sort of thing because I am very science focused,” he said.

Ricketts said the Culver Quiz Bowl team is always looking for new members.

“It’s super fun,” Ricketts said.