Chloe Paulisick will always remember the capital of the island of Malta.

“It's Valletta; it's seared into my brain for rest of my life,” said the Butler High School senior and daughter of Gerri and Joe Paulisick of Butler.

That's because it's the only question Chloe's Butler High School Hometown High Q team got wrong during its recent competition on the long-running quiz show aired on KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh.

It's especially galling to Chloe because it was the last of 19 questions, spoiling her and teammates Katie Knights' and Emma Teff's chances for a perfect score, and because she considered geography her area of expertise.

“Geography: I memorize the stuff,” she said. “That's kind of my party trick.”

Despite the last-question stumble, the Butler team ran the table on the other questions and defeated opponents from New Castle and East Allegheny to advance to the next round.

Their contest can be seen at 11 a.m. March 20 on KDKA-TV and in a rerun at 11:30 a.m. March 27.

This year, the competition didn't take place in the television station's studio, but went on remotely via Zoom on Feb. 22 from the classroom of Stephanie Peters, AP statistics teacher, gifted student coordinator and coach of the Hometown High Q team. This was her fifth year of sending a team to the quiz show.

A lot less tense

Katie, the daughter of Jody Tach and Tom Knights of Butler, who was on the Butler team that competed last year in the studio, said the Zoom experience was a lot less tense.

“It was nerve-racking at the studio,” she said. “There's a live audience and the teams are right next to you.”

During the Zoom contest, Katie said there was no need to buzz in to answer, which made it less stressful.

The trio could talk about the question and then formulate their answer.

Between their various fields of expertise, they came up with the right answer.

“I know general trivia, and I know way too much about mythology,” Katie said.

Emma Teff, the daughter of Cody and Nina Teff of Butler, said she was good at math and science and more rarefied knowledge.

“There were three math questions and three science questions, and one question about Rome that we all knew because we have been in Latin for five years,” Emma said.

The three dressed in blazers, so they looked formal from the waist up, and reported for their Zoom contest after school Feb. 22.

The after-school remote contest was easier on their coach too.

Peters said trying to wrangle gifted students to be in one place at one time was difficult because of all the extra classes and extracurricular activities they take.

“Trying to get them together to go down to Pittsburgh on a Saturday, that was hard to make it work,” Peters said.

This year's entire competition took only 20 minutes for the Butler High team to complete because they weren't vying against their opponents in person.

Chloe said, “They will edit our round in with the other teams.”

Into the quarterfinals

Their near-perfect round will carry them into the quarterfinals, although no one as yet knows when that will be filmed or who their opponents will be.

“We don't have the information yet,” Peters said. “But they generally have everything done by the end of the school year because gifted students often leave early for college.”

Katie has been accepted to the Rochester Institute of Technology, where she plans to major in applied mathematics.

Chloe hasn't chosen a college yet, but plans to major in business. Emma is undecided on a college, but plans to major in engineering.

They may have plans for the future, but don't expect those plans to include a watch party of their Hometown High Q appearance.

“I didn't watch it last time, but there was a lot less anxiety this year,” Katie said.

“I like trivia. It was fun,” she said of her second time on the quiz show.

“It was a cool way to test your knowledge,” Emma said. “Chloe and I do mock trial, so we are used to competing on Zoom.”

“I didn't feel super nervous,” Chloe said. “We got to collaborate all the time.”