WUHSAC XXVI (02/17/2024)

[1992 in spaceflight]

The Washington University Quiz Bowl team is excited to announce the twenty-sixth annual WUHSAC, to be held at Washington University in St. Louis on Saturday, February 17th, 2024.

My name is Jacob O’Rourke, and I'll serve as co-tournament director for this year's tournament with WUSTL team president Jonah Schwartz. This tournament will be a mirror of the CREEK high school set. We are looking forward to a tournament that will celebrate the awesome teams and students playing in the event, as well as our over two decades of hosting the best and brightest of Missouri and nearby states!

Any potential COVID policies will be announced closer to the tournament date, but you can expect them to be similar to the policies of the university.
NOTE: To comply with University Policy, all teams must have at least one coach/chaperone that travels to the game rooms with the team.

To sign your team up for WUHSAC XXVI, please fill out this registration form. Teams will be signed up on a first-come, first-served basis. The field will be updated online at moquizbowl.com and hsquizbowl.org as registrations are received. If the field fills up before you can sign up, please allow us to waitlist you as well; in such a large field, there is an appreciable chance that one or more teams will cancel. We will be setting the initial cap at 24 teams, with the possibility that we will expand depending on staffing and room constraints.

WUHSAC's general rules will be similar to last year.

Rules
•20 tossups and bonuses per game
•no computational math
•20 point powers
•NO bouncebacks on bonuses.
•We will be using negs.

Format
•24-team field with the possibility that this might expand
•Bracketed round robin prelims
•Re-bracketed round robin playoffs

Fees for the tournament will be as follows:
•$10 per school plus $70 per team
•-$10 per buzzer system
•-$15 per experienced staff volunteer
•$30 Minimum Fee Per Team

Information regarding the set distribution for CREEK can be found at this link: https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=26951

We'd like to ask everyone interested in providing staff to let us know the name of the staffer, as soon as possible and if that person would rather scorekeep or is good to read. Keeping track of staff for a tournament of this size will be almost as big a deal as keeping track of the field in preparation for the event. Thank you very much for your help!

As in previous years, we expect that some number of top-finishing teams at WUHSAC XXVI will be invited to this year's PACE National Scholastics Championship, which will be held at the Hyatt Regency Reston in Reston, VA. We hope WUHSAC will provide a useful opportunity for teams and staffers to visit and become familiar with a format similar to that of NSC beforehand. A link to the 2024 NSC can be found here: (https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27403)

In addition there will be a separate award for the top small school at the event, modifying slightly the rule used at the PACE NSC. There will also be an award if 4 or more teams qualify for the top JV team, per the PACE definition. The definitions to qualify for each award are below:

"A JV team consists of players in 10th grade or below…”

A “small school” is a school with fewer than 600 students in 10th through 12th grades that is a public school and has a non-selective admission policy (non-selective is not the same as non-magnet; schools from systems where every school is a specialized center and students may choose to attend any are eligible)."

If you have any further questions, please e-mail us ([email protected] and [email protected]) or reply here. We look forward to you all attending WUHSAC XXVI!

Sincerely,

Jacob O’Rourke
Co-Tournament Director, WUHSAC XXVI

[1992 in spaceflight]

Field (41/48):
-Westminster (GA) [2 teams, 0 buzzers, 0 staffers]
-St. Pius X (Festus) [1 team, 1 buzzer, 0 staffers]
-Hallsville [1 team, 0 buzzers, 0 staffers]
-Washington [2 teams, 1 buzzer, 1 staffer]
-Mexico [1 team, 1 buzzer, 1 staffer]
-Rockhurst [1 team, 1 buzzer, 1 staffer]
-Eldon [1 team, 1 buzzer, 0 staffers]
-Bayless [2 teams, 2 buzzers, 2 staffers]
-Fair Grove [1 team, 1 buzzer, 0 staffers]
-Ladue [2 teams, 1 buzzer, 0 staffers]
-Webster Groves [2 teams, 1 buzzer, 0 staffers]
-College Heights Christian [1 team, 1 buzzer, 2 staffers]
-Hannibal [2 teams, 1 buzzer, 0 staffers]
-Orchard Farm [2 teams, 1 buzzer, 1 staffer]
-Centralia [2 teams, 2 buzzers, 2 staffers]
-Columbia Independent [2 teams, 2 buzzers, 1 staffer]
-Lindbergh [1 team, 2 buzzers, 0 staffers]
-DeSmet Jesuit [1 team, 1 buzzer, 0 staffers]
-St. Joseph Central [2 teams, 1 buzzer, 0 staffers]
-CBC [1 team, 1 buzzer, 1 staffer]
-Warrenton [2 teams, 1 buzzer, 0 staffers]
-Glendale [1 team, 0 buzzers, 0 staffers]
-Kickapoo [1 team, 1 buzzer, 0 staffers]
-Clayton [1 team, 1 buzzer, 1 staffer]
-Hillcrest [1 team, 1 buzzer, 0 staffers]
-Notre Dame (Cape Girardeau) [2 teams, 1 buzzer, 0 staffers]
-Priory [1 team, 1 buzzer, 1 staffer]
-Fort Zumwalt West [2 teams, 2 buzzers, 0 staffers]
-Lutheran South [1 team, 1 buzzer, 0 staffers]

[1992 in spaceflight]

We have reached the initial 24 team field cap. I highly encourage interested teams to keep registering for the waitlist, as we fully intend to make a decision on field expansion shortly after the new year.

[1992 in spaceflight]

We've gotten PACE Qualifier status and have expanded the field to 36 teams. We will be making a decision on expanding to 48 teams in the next week or two.

[1992 in spaceflight]

Yesterday, we had 38 teams brave the snow and a partial shutdown on I-70 that resulted in a slowdown of traffic, and a few teams arriving late to the tournament. Due to that, we ended up starting about 45 minutes late. Thanks to the heroic efforts of all of our staffers, we ended up finishing round 10 shortly after 6 for most teams, and round 11 ended for teams in the top 16 at about 6:40. I cannot thank all of our staffers enough for all that they did to assist me with making sure that the ship that was this tournament did not steer off course.

Full statistics from throughout the day can be found here. Please let me know if there are any fixes that need to be brought to my attention.

Mexico defeated College Heights in round 12, the first game of the advantage final, 390-190, to win the WUHSAC XXVI title. Ladue A and Hallsville rounded out the top 4. Mexico also finished as our Small School Champion. By virtue of making the top bracket, Westminster A from George won the top JV team title.

Thanks for attending, and I hope to see you all for next year's WUHSAC!

Jacob O'Rourke
Co-Tournament Director, WUHSAC XXVI