UPDATE: Quiz Bowl team fares well in regionals

On Saturday, Feb. 4, Liberty’s Quiz Bowl team returned from Virginia Tech with a third-place finish in the National Academic Quiz Tournaments’ (NAQT) Regional Competition. Liberty posted many wins over top schools, including the tournament-winner, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Liberty’s Catherine Hardee earned a medallion in the tournament for scoring 1,005 points (91.4 points per game.)

Finishing the tournament with a 9-2 record, Liberty increased its chances of being invited to the NAQT National Tournament in Chicago, Ill., in March.

Regional Tournament results

• 1.UNC (11-1)
• 2. GA Tech (10-2)
• 3. Liberty varsity (9-2)
• 4. College of Charleston (8-3)
• 5. Vanderbilt (7-4)
• 6. Davidson (6-5)
• 7. Virginia Tech (6-5)
• 8. North Greenville (1-10)
• 9. Liberty, junior varsity (3-8)
• 10. Roanoke (3-8)
• 11. Radford (3-8)
• 12. High Point (0-11)
  

  ---

Quiz Bowl team sweeps Big South tournament

Quiz Bowl team members are, left to right, Kaity Shondelmyer, Andrea Teachout, Dr. Jim Nutter (coach), Corbin Payne, Catherine Hardee and Jake Rogers (captain).

Liberty University’s Quiz Bowl team captured its sixth Big South Conference win in seven years at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., on Saturday, Jan. 28.

The team competed against six schools and walked away undefeated for the second year in a row. The average margin of victory was 190 points; they won their closest game by 140 points.

In its out-of-conference schedule last semester, the team defeated Duke University, University of Maryland, Virginia Tech, University of Pittsburgh, George Washington University and Western Kentucky University.

Quiz Bowl has been called “the varsity sport of the mind.” Players answer a variety of questions on literature, history, geography, government, the sciences, math, art, popular culture, and sports. Games consist of two 10-minute halves.

Dr. James Nutter, Liberty’s coach, said it is similar to Jeopardy “but with much harder questions, where we compete in teams of four against other colleges.”

Next weekend, the Quiz Bowl team will travel to Virginia Tech to compete in a regional competition of the National Academic Quiz Tournament. The top teams will qualify to attend the Intercollegiate Championship Tournament (ICT), the premier quiz bowl tournament at the collegiate level.

The Quiz Bowl team is part of Liberty’s rigorous Honors Program. The team has 18 players from a variety of majors, and six are National Merit Finalists on a full academic scholarship at Liberty. With two seniors graduating in May, Nutter said the team is looking for new players “who possess a great depth of academic knowledge, popular culture, and trivia.”

Big South Tournament results

• LU over UNCA, 275-35
• LU over Winthrop, 310-70
• LU over Radford, 260-100
• LU over Coastal Carolina, 245-75
• LU over Gardner-Webb, 255-115
• LU over VMI, 270-80