Mental Champs Get Physical
They’ve got brain, but do they have game? FM brought together students with records of success in quiz shows and spelling and geography bees and pitted them against each other in a less academic endeavor: arm-wrestling. The winner of two out of three rounds takes the match. Let’s get ready to rumble.
Alyssa M. Smith ’04
“The Price Is Right” contestant
Hometown: Jonesboro, Ga.
House: Eliot
Concentration: History and literature
Date of birth: Oct. 18, 1981
Height: 5’4”
Weight: Uh, no.
Prize winnings: A 2002 Ford Ranger ($15,000).
Marques J. Redd ’04
College “Jeopardy!” semi-finalist
Hometown: Macon, Ga.
Concentration: Social studies and Afro-American studies
House: Adams
Date of birth: Sept. 28, 1983
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 165
Prize winnings: $5,000. Maybe $4,000 after taxes? And a subscription to The New York Times.
Blake J. Boulerice ’04
“Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?” contestant
Hometown: Miami, Fla.
House: Winthrop
Concentration: Linguistics
Date of birth: April 14, 1983
Height: 5’7”
Weight: 145 lbs.
Prize winnings: $8,000. I pay taxes this year.
Wendy Y. Guey ’05
1996 National Spelling Bee Champion
Hometown: Pam Beach Gardens, Fla.
Concentration: East Asian studies and economics
House: Adams
Date of birth: Sept. 29, 1983
Height: 5’3”
Weight: A ton.
Prize winnings: I got a trophy and $5,000 to spend on whatever I want. Also, a computer, airline tickets, a camera and an encyclopedia set. They gave me a whole bunch of random stuff.
Oluseyi A. Fayanju ’05
1996 National Geography Bee Champion
Hometown: Verona, N.J., but we moved farther down along the interstate a year ago to Basking Ridge.
House: Quincy
Concentration: Economics
Date of birth: Dec. 27, 1983
Height: I’ll be generous and say 6’1”
Weight: 175 lbs.
Prize winnings: A $25,000 college scholarship.
Match 1 Blake vs. Marques
Blake Boulerice danced up Plympton Street ready to go, unfazed by the other competitors and their supporters waiting outside The Crimson, confident his natural prowess would lead to victory. Boulerice claims he “really didn’t do anything to prepare” for his appearance last year on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” That strategy may have worked when Regis tested his mind, but would it work on a day when victory would be dependent on his body?
Four inches taller and 20 pounds heavier than Boulerice, Marques Redd appeared a daunting adversary. The two met in the arm-wrestling arena (a wooden picnic table on The Crimson’s roof) and immediately began criticizing the setup. “This table is at a weird angle!” “There’s too much sliding action.” Elevation, stress, anxiety—whatever the cause, Boulerice started to doubt his abilities. “I don’t even know how to arm-wrestle,” he whispered to his opponent.
At the beginning of the first round, Redd and Boulerice were at a standstill. A large, unsightly vein protruded from Boulerice’s neck as he complained, “What is the point of this?” At the three-minute mark, however, Boulerice began to take over. Redd’s head shook so much the other competitors feared it might roll off. Redd seemed to share their fear, suddenly giving up. Perhaps remembering his elimination from the “Jeopardy!” College Tournament last year, he bowed his head, looking up only to say, “This reminds me of how hard it was to work the buzzer.” Boulerice’s success continued in the second round where he quickly finished Redd off. But victory wasn’t sweet. “I have splinters all over my ass,” Boulerice winced.
Blake, 2-0
Match 2 Seyi vs. Alyssa
When Bob Barker called Alyssa Smith out of the audience to be a contestant on “The Price is Right,” she ran down the aisle at a breakneck pace. Her need for speed manifested itself once again on Sunday afternoon, when she arrived a good three minutes before any of her competition. Her three roommates came for moral support and to take embarrassing photos.
But Smith’s entourage couldn’t intimidate Oluseyi Fayajnu, who goes by Seyi. Large crowds are nothing new to this New Jersey native. After winning the 1996 National Geography Bee and a $25,000 college scholarship presented in the form of an oversized check, Fayanju waded through a sea of publicity. In addition to interviews with the BBC and the Voice of America, Fayanju appeared on “Good Morning America,” CNN and CBS News. “It was a whirlwind year,” he remembers, “but it was a lot of fun.” It was at the short-lived “Carolyn and Marilyn Show” that Fayanju first met Wendy Guey, the 1996 National Spelling Bee Champion.
This was perhaps the most uneven match of the day, as Fayanju rose almost one foot above Smith. This didn’t appear to daunt her as she sassed her way to the table, eager to get her game on because she had a meeting to go to in half an hour. In less than two seconds Fayanju pounded Smith’s arm into the picnic table, almost shattering Smith’s ulna. For the second round they decided to use their left arms. Whispers of “she’s left-handed” came from Smith’s corner of optimistic friends, along with distracting flash photography. Not even Smith’s left hand could save her. Fayanju once again forced Smith down within two seconds.
Seyi, 2-0
Match 3 Marques vs. Alyssa
Smith and Redd both know disappointment. Smith reports that Bob Barker is far from the hot elderly man his TV appearances might suggest. Instead, she claims, he is “a little on the deathly pale side.” Redd encountered a similar problem with Alex Trebek. “Trebek is a dirty old man! He flirted a little with one of the girls competing and told a lot of jokes about his ex-wife,” he says.
Intent on avoiding a second defeat, Smith removed her sweatshirt. With more arm flexibility, Alyssa’s energy perked up. Suddenly she had stamina, and Redd had to pump his arm hard. Alas, not even her boost of energy could save her. Thirteen seconds later Redd had Smith pinned.
Marques, 2-0
Match 4 Wendy vs. Alyssa
After arriving 40 minutes late to the arena, Wendy Guey—the 1996 National Spelling Bee Champion—posed the word “lisle” to Redd. “Could I have a definition please?” he asked, not recognizing the word as a small, tightly twisted thread usually made of long-staple cotton (duh). “L-I-E-L-E,” he guessed. “Actually,” Guey said, “that’s not right. But close.”
Her coy demeanor at her arm-wrestling match hid her true nature as an intense overachiever with hardened priorities. In the months following her spelling victory in 1996, she was invited to appear on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” but had to pass: Middle school finals were the same week and she needed to study.
“I don’t have any muscle,” Guey announced, as Smith’s fans encouraged her to put the past two matches behind her. Guey emanated moans and groans as Smith pushed Guey’s arm into the splintery table, symbolically asking Guey to spell “defeat.” Perhaps the spelling bee divined this outcome. “My winning word was vivisepulture,” Guey explains. “I studied, like, roots and stuff of different words. Vivi means alive and sepulture means buried. It means buried alive.”
Alyssa, 2-0
The Championship match Blake vs. Seyi
Fayanju’s last question in the National Geography Bee was: “Name the European co-principality whose heads of state are the president of France and the bishop of Urgel.” Fayanju correctly answered Andorra. Boulerice’s last question on “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?” was to name the city where the Trevi Fountain is located. Boulerice didn’t know the answer. Boulerice lost.
Having out-muscled Harvard’s other Quiz Kids, Boulerice and Fayanju were ready to rumble. But before they could begin, Boulerice paused to ask Fayanju if he knew where the Trevi Fountain was. “Rome,” Fayanju casually answered. Now it was personal.
Nevertheless, Boulerice proved no match for the almighty Fayanju, who easily won, 2-0. Learning to accept defeat may be hard for Harvard’s quiz kids, but at least they have their prize earnings to comfort them. “I used some of it,” Boulerice says, “to go see the Trevi Fountain.”
Seyi, 2-0