Words: Jonah Drenning
At a recent Hammond High School It’s Academic Tournament, Centennial High School’s A Team, featuring Ryan Heslin, Anant Mishra, Mohammed Khader, and Weijia Cheng, placed first, continuing their three year winning streak.
“I am very pleased with our recent success at the annual Green Eggs and Hammond tournament,” said Mishra, “Our success over the past few years has been truly extraordinary.”
Other Centennial teams also performed exceptionally well, with the B Team finishing in fourth, the C Team in fifth, and D team in ninth amongst a field of 36 teams. Even then, several of the Centennial teams were eliminated when they were forced to play each other due to the design of the event’s bracket.
Looking forward, the A and B Teams have qualified for the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence’s (PACE) tournament, in Reston, VA, and are applying to the High School National Tournament in Chicago. They are hoping to improve on last year’s respective 18th place (out of 96) and 13th place (out of 272) finishes from last year. Additionally, Mishra believes that their spectacular showing at Hammond did not even indicate their true potential.
“The format of the Hammond Tournament was TV style where the questions were shorter, less in depth, and based heavily on buzzer speed,” stated Mishra, “Although we enjoy TV style, our real success lies in quiz bowl, a format utilized throughout the country where the questions are significantly longer and require much greater knowledge as opposed to buzzer speed […] my teammates, myself included, believe that this is where our success can be truly measured.”
With a combination of this advantageous format and many hours of careful practice, the It’s Academic teams will be tested on June 6-7 during the PACE and on May 29-31 in the High School National Tournament.
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