Fantastic Quiz Bowl News from Mr. Johnson!

5/27/2024 10:17 pm

The Heights Quiz Bowl Team competed in the NAQT High School National Championship Tournament over this past weekend in Atlanta, GA. 320 Teams, representing the top 15% of teams from their respective states and regions, were invited to compete over two long days.

If you would like to see what the game and the NAQT Nationals Tournament are like, here is a promo video from the 2018 tournament: https://youtu.be/-ShFOPdiM2Y?feature=shared

I am happy to report that Bryce Cruise, Owen Gibbs, Brayden Ferrell and James Allen far exceeded our most optimistic expectations. We started the tournament with a 7-3 record in the prelims, including impressive upset wins over Houston's Kinkaid School (ranked 2^nd in the nation) and Hastings from NY (ranked 15th). In three years of local and state tournaments we had NEVER beaten Kinkaid. The 7-3 record in prelims qualified us for the playoffs on Sunday and earned the privilege of double elimination.

We won our first playoff game, then lost a tough match against Dunbar of Kentucky, the #24 team in the country. But because we had earned double elimination, we could continue playing. We then went on a shocking 4 game winning streak, going much deeper into the playoffs than our two previous trips to Nationals. This run included a 2^nd game against Kinkaid, which we amazingly won on the final question, thereby eliminating our neighbors and perennial rivals. We also beat Thomas Jefferson Science and Tech's B's team - TJS is the #14 ranked high school in the entire country and the #1 school in Virginia.

After 16 rounds our 12-4 record put us in the final Super Seven, which guaranteed us a ballroom match in front of a crowd, and also guaranteed that we would tie for at least 5th. The weekend ended with a spirited loss against the #8 ranked Livingston Quiz Bowl team of New Jersey (and ultimate 3^rd place tournament winners), which was live-blogged by the tournament.

We ended the weekend tied for 5^th place out of 320 teams. This is the highest Nationals finish of any HISD team, ever. It also matches the highest Houston and region public school finish ever, since James Taylor's (Katy) 5^th place in 2019. The only Houston or southeast Texas teams to ever finish higher than 5th are St. John's School and Kinkaid, two private schools that have been playing Quiz Bowl for over two decades.