Kinesiology Students Seize First Place at Student Bowl Competition April 10, 2012

A team of undergraduate students in the College of Education’s Department of Kinesiology and Health Education have captured first place at the American College of Sports Medicine’s (ACSM) Texas Student Bowl, beating around 19 other Texas teams. The winners were part of an all-female team that competed against other all-female teams.

The Student Bowl is a Jeopardy-style competition that tests students’ knowledge of exercise physiology, exercise testing and prescription, and sports medicine.

Contenders in the challenging competition were required to tackle questions such as, what is the “name of the phenomenon that stroke volume increases as end-diastolic volume or venous return of the heart increases?” and what’s a “hormone that is released from the pancreas at a higher rate during exercise to mobilize liver glycogen and adipose tissue fatty acids?”

“This is the third year that we’ve competed,” says Dr. Hirofumi Tanaka, associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education. “The first year we had a team win first place, but last year we were edged out and came in second, losing to UT-El Paso. This year we are very happy to have recaptured first place.”

Members of the all-female, winning team are Paola Matheus, Ashley Minei and Kelly Wright, and they will be representing Texas at the national Student Bowl competition in San Francisco in June.

Among the all-male teams, The University of Texas’s team finished well, coming in second.

According to Tanaka, student competitors from The University of Texas at Austin were selected based on their impressive academic performance in KIN 325K, an undergraduate exercise physiology class.

In addition to hosting the Student Bowl, the Texas ACSM meeting also provided an occasion for recognizing outstanding scholarship from graduate students in exercise physiology. Winners from the College of Education included:

Michelle Harrison from Dr. Brother’s lab, awarded a $1,000 grant to assist with research on how muscle blood flow becomes impaired as people age
Justin Trombold from Dr. Ed Coyle’s lab, who won first place in the Manuscript Award category and garnered $225
Mandeep Dhindsa from Dr. Tanaka’s lab, who won second place in the Manuscript Award category and was given $150
Dan Machin from Dr. Coyle’s lab, who won third place in the Manuscript Award category and received $125

Also at the Texas ACSM meeting, several UT-Austin exercise physiology graduate students were recognized for their excellent work. Michelle Harrison from Dr. Matt Brother's lab was awarded a $1,000 student grant to help with her research on how muscle blood flow becomes impaired as people age. Manuscript Awards went to Justin Trombold, who won first place and $225 (he's in Dr. Ed Coyle's lab); Mandeep Dhindsa, who won second place and $150 (in Dr. Hiro Tanaka's lab) and Dan Machin, who won third place and $125 (also in Dr. Coyle's lab). Taka Tarumi and Katie Hudspeth, who are graduate students in Tanaka’s lab, trained and prepared the student team for the competition, with assistance from Tanaka as well.

—Kay Randall, University Communications, 512-232-3910