Good evening.
I've woken up from my post-tournament recovery nap and am pleased to announce the results of the "2011" Bergen Academies Junior Academic Competition. All teams played four rounds in the morning, and full results ("box scores" and statistics for teams and individuals) can be found here:
http://hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/89/stats/prelims/ By midweek, statistics from the playoff games will be entered and there will be a single page with all results; I'll send out a second link with that when it's done.
The top eight teams (highlighted in blue in the previous link) qualified for the playoffs. In the quarterfinals, #1 Indepedence-A defeated #8 Demarest-B 425-240 and #4 Ben Franklin-A defeated #5 Elizabeth Morrow-A 330-210. The bottom half of the bracket saw two very tight games. #7 Independence-B knocked off unbeaten #2 Demarest-C 250-230, and #3 Ben Franklin-C beat #6 Hunter 275-255, with both games featuring the winners getting revenge for an earlier loss.
The semifinals saw Independence-A defeat Ben Franklin-A a second time, this one by a score of 390-250. BF-A was ahead at halftime, but IND-A answered nine of ten second-half tossups to pull away. Meanwhile, Ben Franklin-C was always able to stay a few steps ahead of Independence-B, winning the other semifinal 310-220. Ben Franklin-A won the third place game, but I don't have the scoresheet for that in front of me.
The championship game was representative of Independence's strong and balanced performance, with Caleb earning 60 points and Paritosh earning 75 points, plus Mohan picking up two powers.
The final score was Independence-A 475, Ben Franklin-C 185.
Much congratulations to Independence, and all members of that team and coach Tina Palmer. Congratulations also to Ben Franklin for taking both 2nd and 3rd place, plus the gold and silver medals for individual scoring, going to David S (BF-A) at 111.25 points per game, and Rebecca R (BF-C) at 97.5 PPG respectively. Eric Y (Demarest-C), Thomas H (Dem-B), and Caleb W (Ind-A) took home bronze medals for 3rd through 5th place scoring during the preliminary rounds.
Obviously, a tournament like this is impossible without some help, and I sincerely thank David Madden of the National History Bee and Bowl (
http://historybee.com and
http://historybowl.com) for volunteering to moderate this morning and providing several buzzer systems, without which this competition literally could not have happened. I also wish to thank Andrew Ibendahl for volunteering his day to staff. On an internal note, thanks to my fellow BCA teachers Dr. Judy Pinto and Dr. Todd Crane for being available to help chaperone and crowd control (it was Dr. Crane who alerted me you were all getting a little restless at lunchtime and to "get on with it") and my wonderful quiz bowl team. Also, and this is by no means last,
thank you to all of you for coming and especially for being understanding with regards to the cancellation of our original date and the rescheduling. I heard a lot of students, coaches, and parents express their thanks for a well-run competition, but I know that without those students, coaches, and parents, there would be no competition.
If you have any comments whatsoever about the tournament, from question content to moderators to tournament structure, or suggestions about planning for the next event, feel free to let me know. One thing that I do ask is that, because NAQT licenses tournaments across the country,
please do not discuss these questions with anyone who did not attend this tournament. This includes a request to please tell your students not to post to Facebook, their blog, or any public website remarks about what questions they answered correctly. I would like to invite you all to visit the Quiz Bowl Resource Center (
http://hsquizbowl.org/forums), a national forum for discussion of Quiz Bowl at the middle school, high school, and college levels. Especially as your students enter high school next year, they can begin or join teams to compete at the high school events run each year in the New Jersey/New York City area (there are at least a dozen high school tournaments within an hour's drive of Hackensack).
Thank you all for coming and playing! It is my sincere hope that this becomes an annual event, and I will look into setting a date in October or November 2012 for BAJAC II. I'll let you know over the summer, and I invite you all to pass along word to your neighboring schools and teams so that next fall's event can be even bigger and better.
Jon Pinyan
Bergen County Academies Quiz Bowl