Three UTC Health and Human Performance majors are going to the National American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Quiz Bowl in San Diego, California, in May 2015. Christine Hagemeyer, Brianna Mullins, and Megan Ware posted a first-place team win in the Southeast American College of Sports Medicine (SEACSM) Regional Quiz Bowl, held at the 2015 SEACSM Annual Meeting in Jacksonville, Florida. Twenty teams competed.
UTC’s trio beat teams from the University of South Carolina, Auburn, and Virginia Tech. In a “Jeopardy style” format, the students went three rounds and responded to questions about anatomy, neuromuscular physiology, statistics, physics, cardiovascular physiology, and metabolism.
“It was a well-rounded quiz,” said Brianna Mullins, who plans to graduate in December 2015. “The questions were hard, but we only missed one. It shows our professors have prepared us very well.”
Mullins plans to study physical therapy in graduate school. She said the SEACSM conference gave her “an amazing opportunity” to network with faculty from different schools, listen to research presentations, and shine a light on UTC.
“After we won the quiz bowl, a lot of people came up to us and said they had not heard about UTC and asked a lot of questions about our school,” Mullins said.
Dr. Gary Ligouri is very excited about the big win, considering it is the first time UTC has ever participated.
“This is my third year as Department Head of UTC Health and Human Performance. I always try and find a way to take students to professional conferences. For the SEACSM conference, a UTC graduate student in our program presented research. We were also able to take the team of undergraduates. Their win spoke very highly of our program, especially since we were recruiting students for our graduate program at UTC. We had not been visible at this conference in the past, but now the participants know about UTC!” Ligouri said.
Looking ahead to May, the UTC team will be one of 11 regional teams to compete in the National ACSM Quiz Bowl. Mullins says the team will do a lot of studying between now and then.
Ligouri said the students took a relaxed approach to the regional event with no expectation of winning. He’s hopeful they’ll keep the pressure off as they prepare for the national contest.
“It’s safe to say all 11 teams have a great chance to win in May,” Ligouri said.
Great job ladies and the best of luck to you in the nationals. With Dr Liguori in your corner you are my bet to win it all 🙂
Hey, I know some of these people. Good job!!