Hail Mary Leads to Quiz Bowl Title

PROVO, Utah – Oct 08, 2015 – The Brigham Young University football team converted two desperation passes last month in heart-stopping wins over Nebraska and Boise State. But in Las Vegas last month, there was another BYU team making magic on its own last-second Hail Mary.

Down big at the National Recreation and Parks Association’s annual Student Quiz Bowl, four Marriott School of Management recreation management students came from behind in the first round before easily coming out on top in the final to claim the championship.

“Winning the national title was the culmination of a great effort by our students,” says Stacy Taniguchi, recreation management professor and the team’s adviser. “They represented well the high caliber of students we have here at the Marriott School.”

Playing in a Jeopardy!-style format, the Marriott School team wagered all of their points in a last-ditch attempt to catch opponents from the University of Mississippi and North Carolina State in the competition’s opening round. The team succeeded, answering “Fantasy” and “Dream” to a question asking for the names of the newest Disney Cruise ships. The correct response tied the Marriott School with North Carolina State and qualified the team for the finals.

A therapeutic recreation category helped the Marriott School team run away from Texas A&M and North Carolina State in the finals due to the fact that all four Marriott School participants are currently in the program’s therapeutic recreation emphasis. The victory is the second for BYU after also taking first place in 2011.

“Once we got into the final round and one of the sections was therapeutic recreation, we just got question after question right and showed that we deserved to be in that final round and deserved to win,” says Carrinne Cheatham, a senior from Greybull, Wyoming.

Cheatham joined Aimee Johansen, a senior from Provo; Aaron Simon, a senior from Las Vegas; and Cami Turley, a junior from Gilbert, Ariz., to comprise the winning team. After studying separately over the summer, the group had less than three weeks to train together once school began. But the students stated that a strong team chemistry helped them come together.

“We were serious about our preparation efforts and planned on competing well, but I really liked how we never forgot to have fun with it,” says Johansen. “As we practiced and played together we really clicked, which I am positive led to our success as a team.”

The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, entrepreneurship, finance, information systems and public management. The school’s mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,300 students are enrolled in the Marriott School’s graduate and undergraduate programs.