ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — A local high school will send some of its students to the IHSA Scholastic Bowl State Championship in Normal this weekend.

Auburn High School’s team is ready to go. They had practice on Tuesday as they try to continue their more than 20-year streak of top four state finishes.

The Knights recently won the regional and sectional tournaments.

“We are always trying to outperform how we did last year,” said team captain Sinecio Morales.

“State last year, we got third, and we have a pretty good history,” added team member Alex.

Auburn has dominated the field since becoming a team in 2002, placing in the top four of state every year during that stretch.

Morales said a little secret to their success is something that has nothing to do with answering questions or knowledge of the game.

“The whole-time playing quiz bowl is more enjoyable if you actually like the people that you’re doing it with,” Morales said. “So, being able to make friends with each other, to collaborate on bonus parts or to talk about things that you are interested in just because they will be interested as well. Like, there’s a bunch of different aspects to it that having a friendship there makes it a lot better.”

“First of all, it is a lot of fun, I’ve met some of my best friends doing this,” Alex added. “I started in 6th grade, so these people, I’ve known them for like seven years.”

Many have been teammates since their time at Marshall Middle School. They have made a name for themselves at school so far, and are now looking to do it at the state level.

“And they’ll say, ‘Oh, what’s quiz bowl?’ cause some people don’t know what it is,” Morales said. “Or, the hoodie says ‘Scholastic Bowl,’ so they’ll say, ‘What’s Scholastic Bowl?’ and I’ll tell them what it is and they say, ‘Oh, that sounds kind of fun, I could never do that though. I’m not smart enough.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, the big thing about it is you don’t really have to be smart enough to do it, you join because you want to learn things.'”

You can also check out the Auburn Knights in action a little closer to home. They made it to the “Elite 8” in our “Bergstrom Stateline Quiz Bowl.”