LAKEWOOD — Hi-Q season continues into February, as high school teams from Lakewood, Marysville and Arlington compete for a shot at the finals in March.

Lakewood High School’s Hi-Q team is striving for its first Hi-Q championship. Faculty advisors Jeff Sowards and Mike Fellows have been coaching student members Samantha Adams, Lauren Burch, Ashley Cline, Victor Czarnetzke, Skyler Tetreau and Ryan Whitehead through competitions against two other high schools in each round, during which students must beat their peers to the draw in answering questions in 13 different academic categories.

The Lakewood team is set to compete again on Feb. 3 starting at 9 a.m. at Archbishop Murphy High School in Everett, against the Archbishop Murphy and Lynnwood high school Hi-Q teams, and on Feb. 17 starting at 8:30 a.m. at Mariner High School in Everett, against the Mariner and Edmonds-Woodway high school Hi-Q teams.

Marysville-Pilchuck High School’s Hi-Q team has won the academic quiz competition four times since Hi-Q started in 1976, and they’ll face off against the Mariner and Lake Stevens high school Hi-Q teams in the M-PHS auditorium on Feb. 8 starting at 9:40 a.m.

This year’s M-PHS Hi-Q team includes student members Virgil Alanso, CeCi Henderson, Chelsea Meuller and Joseph Lawrence, as well as faculty advisors Allison Welch and Jeff Riechel. This year, they’re up against 15 other Snohomish and Island county school teams in Hi-Q, all of whom have been racking up points since early to mid-January to determine which teams will advance to the playoffs.

Among the M-PHS team’s rivals are the Arlington High School Hi-Q team, which has won the academic quiz competition six times since 1976. The AHS team is aiming to improve on its third-place finish in last year’s Hi-Q competition. Its student team of Kori Bowns, Janey Foxe, Robert Kephart, Kyle Kilmer, Corinne McClure, Rachele Mosley, Colton Rongve and Hannah Mendro also includes faculty advisors Jane Joselow and Ben Mendro, the latter of whom is Hannah’s father and has been the team’s coach during his entire 20-year career at AHS.

Mendro noted that the competitive spirit of the endeavor often gets students excited, while Kephart, a junior who’s signed onto the team for the second time this year, added that students tend to specialize in subjects in which they’re already interested, in order to succeed. During last year’s competitions, Kephart also learned the value of teamwork in ensuring that everyone’s skills and areas of expertise complement one another.

The Arlington team’s next competition is set for Feb. 22 starting at 8:30 a.m. in Lynnwood High School, against the Lynnwood and Meadowdale high school Hi-Q teams. The Hi-Q semi-finals will take place Feb. 26, followed by the finals on March 3.

HiQ is run locally by Everett Community College. For more information about Hi-Q and the 2011 season, log onto www.everettcc.edu/hiq or call EvCC Outreach Specialist Amy Hammons at 425-388-9073.