Moorestown Friends Win Consumer Bowl

, which competed in the New Jersey Consumer Bowl for the first time this year, won the South Region Competition and will move onto the state finals May 9 in Trenton.

 “We never expected to get this far,’’ said team captain Amanda Connell. “We entered the Consumer Bowl this year to test the waters. Win or lose (in the state finals), we have had a blast.’’

The regional competition, held on Burlington County College’s Mount Laurel campus, featured seven county champions from South Jersey. Absegami High School (Atlantic County), Cumberland Regional (Cumberland), Glassboro (Gloucester) and Salem County Career & Technical School (Salem) competed in the first round.

Salem Career & Tech scored 120 points to earn a berth in the regional final against the winner of Moorestown Friends (Burlington), Winslow (Camden) and Ocean City (Cape May). Moorestown Friends defeated Winslow by 15 points.

Sophomores Trinh Son and Spencer Bard and senior Wyeth Shabel answered consecutive questions correctly to give Moorestown Friends a 15-10 lead after the first round. MFS carried a 40-30 lead into the final lightning round. Freshman Kirsten Mullen, the team’s alternate, was not available to compete in the final.

Connell and Bard correctly answered six of the first eight questions–some before the question was finished being read—to send MFS on its way to a 120-70 win.

“That was our strategy,’’ said Shabel of answering early. “We learned that in the county competition from (defending champ) Seneca. After you hear most of the question, you can guess what the rest will be and give the answer. And once you hear two correct answers when it’s multiple choice, you know it will be ‘All the above.’ "

“We met every lunch period for three weeks, used PowerPoints to study and we just had a lot of fun preparing for this,’’ Connell said.

Moorestown Friends School will face North Jersey and defending state champ Irvington along with the Central Jersey champ still to be determined.

“This is just great fun,’’ said MFS adviser Barbara Kreider. “I’ve learned more stuff from this competition. I strongly recommend this competition to other schools and other teachers. We don’t teach this stuff in school. The kids are learning it on their own. It is a great learning experience.’’

Moorestown Friends School becomes the first Burlington County school to represent the South Region since 2005 when Pemberton won its fourth consecutive regional title.

The game show-like competition is sponsored statewide by the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs in the Office of the Attorney General.