These Merced middle schoolers just won a high school dominated competition

The annual Quiz Bowl at the California Scholarship Federation/California Junior Scholarship Federation spring conference was originally started in 1995 as a high school competition.

Last year, the competition was opened up to middle school students. And this year, a team from Merced's Cruickshank Middle School won, beating out high school teams from across central California, according to a Merced City School District news release.

Cruickshank students Samuel Stalnaker, Daniel Chen and Zachary Robinson beat Visalia's El Diamante High School by one point for the victory during Saturday's competition in Hanford.

"These boys held their own as random questions from literature, geography, history, math, and science were projected on a screen while the proctor read them aloud," said Wendy May, the students' adviser

The students answered a literature question about W.W. Jacob's "The Monkey's Paw," which they happened to read in class at the beginning of the year, May said in the release.

The victory marked Samuel, Daniel and Zachary as the first middle school team to win the Quiz Bowl, according to the release.

In addition to the competition trophy, Daniel and Zachary were two of five applicants who received the Marian Huhn Award that recognizes eighth graders for academic excellence and service to school and community, the release states. The award came with a $250 cash prize.

This story was originally published March 21, 2018 at 10:26 AM with the headline "These Merced middle schoolers just won a high school dominated competition."