The first place joint Delaware State University-UD "DE-fenders of the Deep" Quiz Bowl team -- (l-r) Emily Ruhl of UD; Delaware State University's Jillian Phinnessee, Angelina Watts and Caitlin Berchtold; Lane Johnston of UD. The team won the American Fisheries Society first-ever Quiz Bowl at the organization's recent annual meeting in Atlantic City, N.J. — *In this photo:* The first place joint Delaware State University-UD “DE-fenders of the Deep” Quiz Bowl team – (l-r) Emily Ruhl of UD; Delaware State University’s Jillian Phinnessee, Angelina Watts and Caitlin Berchtold; Lane Johnston of UD. The team won the American Fisheries Society first-ever Quiz Bowl at the organization’s recent annual meeting in Atlantic City, N.J.

On Campus

Joint DSU-UD team win 1st place in Fisheries Quiz Bowl

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

A combined team of Delaware State University Natural Resources students and University of Delaware Marine Bioscience graduate students recently took first place in the American Fisheries Society Quiz Bowl.

Held during the American Fisheries Society’s annual meeting on Aug. 21-22 in Atlantic City, N.J., it was the first-ever fisheries Quiz Bowl held by the national organization.

The first-place Delaware State University-UD team – under the name of “DE-fenders of the Deep” – included Delaware State University students Caitlin Berchtold, Angelina Watts and Jillian Phinnessee. They were joined on the team by UD’s Lane Johnston and Emily Ruhl.

In the semifinal the DE-fenders of the Deep defeated the University of Arizona and then went on to beat Stockton University in the finals.

Ms. Phinnessee, a graduate Natural Resources student, Angelina Watts presents the fishing gloves to Johnny Moore, an environmental scientist who accepted them for DNREC. said the Delaware State University students and the UD students didn’t meet until the day before Quiz Bowl, but remarkably developed a good chemistry very quickly.

“It was a team effort,” Ms. Phinnessee said. “If we hadn’t come together as a team, we wouldn’t have won the competition.”

Ms. Ruhl, who recently completed her Master of Science, said the Quiz Bowl was exciting and “nerve-wracking,” but noted that the two Delaware schools performed well together. “Delaware is such a tight-knit state, that it was very comfortable for us to compete together without knowing each other very well,” she said.

As the first-place team, DE-fenders of the Deep won an electric fish handling gloves kit valued at almost $1,900.

“The gloves work to disable a fish, similar to a stun gun,” said Ms. Watts, a senior at DSU. “It is for the safety of the fish in a hatchery or when sampling in the field, because it stops the fish from flapping around and injuring themselves.”

With the team being representative of both Delaware State University and UD, instead of negotiating over which school would get the first-place prize, the team members jointly decided to donate the gloves to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

Dr. Dewayne Fox, Professor of Natural Resources, was the faculty advisor for the winning team.