Quiz Bowl team earns more wins

Liberty University’s Quiz Bowl team scored big again last Saturday, racking up six game wins at the regional Academic Competition Federation tournament hosted by the University of Virginia.

Four of the team’s wins were over North Carolina State University (200-35; 220-100; 250-95; 245-25), an Atlantic Coast Conference team. Liberty chalked up its first ACC win when it toppled Duke University earlier this semester.

“We didn’t win [the] championship,” said Dr. Jim Nutter, Liberty’s quiz team coach and associate professor of English, … “but we did finish better in that tournament than we ever had in the past.”

Adding to Saturday’s tournament victories were wins over North Carolina Wesleyan (285-160) and Virginia Commonwealth University (250-160). Earlier this year the team defeated George Mason University, another in-state rival.

This week’s success follows a string of wins in the Big South Conference, where Liberty has won four championships in the last five years.

Nutter said that this year’s team appears to be even stronger, with the addition of three National Merit finalists and one student who has qualified three times to be on Jeopardy.

In January, the team will travel to the Big South Conference tournament at Coastal Carolina University and to the National Academic Quiz Competition (NAQT) at East Carolina University in February.

Quiz Bowl has been called the “varsity sport of the mind.” Teams play games consisting of two nine-minute halves, answering a variety of questions on literature, history, geography, government, the sciences, math, art, popular culture and sports.

Liberty’s team consists entirely of Honors Program students.

For more information about Liberty’s Quiz Bowl, or to schedule a tryout, please email team coach Dr. Jim Nutter.