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Preliminary round results. |
Single elimination round results.
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Eleven middle school and junior high teams competed in the first-ever Junior Nationals. When it was over, no team finished undefeated. The teams were considerably better than expected, and the scores were pretty high.
The most exciting preliminary-round game featured Kentucky’s Danville Bate Middle School and Manheim Township Middle School from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The score was tied at 290 at the final bell. Tie-breakers were drawn from the high school “Stump the Experts” question bank. It took this third overtime question to settle the match: The Niger River flows into which gulf that, experts claim, could support enough offshore drilling to provide 20% of America’s oil by 2014? Andrew Nadig from Manheim Township knew the answer, “Gulf of Guinea,” so the Pennsylvania team won that game, and went on to finish 6-0 in the prelims, with a No. 1 rank going into the playoffs.
Longfellow Middle School from Falls Church, Virginia, saw their A-team sail through the prelims with a 6-0 record, while their B-team qualified with a 5-1 record, rounding out a four-team playoff field.
Danville Bate came out on top of their Semifinal match with Longfellow A by a score of 425-335. Manheim Township edged Longfellow B, 385-350.
The championship match was a classic – a rematch between Manheim Township and Danville Bate. Kentucky appeared ready to trounce Pennsylvania, opening up a 90-30 lead by the end of the “Warm Up Round.” Midway through the “Bonus Round,” after they swept the WATER bonus, Danville Bate enjoyed a 130-45 lead. But Manheim Township stormed back, grabbing the next three bonus opportunities with tossup answers of Slavs, Indianapolis, and Rolls Royce. They swept the RIGHT TRIANGLE and AMERICAN HISTORY bonuses, and the halftime bell found them trailing Danville Bate only 130-110. The “Sixty Seconds” round categories were: CIVIL WAR SONGS, STOCK SYMBOLS, PEOPLES, and the MYSTERY CATEGORY. Manheim Township chose STOCK SYMBOLS and gained a 70-10 advantage. Danville Bate then chose the MYSTERY CATEGORY, which turned out to be DISEASES, and they almost swept it, with a 90-10 result.
The score, then, stood at 230-190 in favor of Danville Bate at the start of the “Stump the Experts” round. Manheim Township quickly tied the game by recognizing a Norman Rockwell painting and identifying Montana as home to the Crow and Blackfeet reservations. Danville Bate retook the lead after identifying carbon dioxide as the compound used for fighting fires in tunnels and basements. Manheim Township tied it up again after this one: “Disney announced that rights of High School Musical will be released so what places can do their own performance at the local level?” (Ans. High schools) The Pennsylvania team moved into the lead after an Algebra question. The Kentucky team moved back into a tie, as they knew it was Martin Luther who wrote, “It is a distressing and terrible thing to see that the head of Christendom, who boasts of being the vicar of Christ and the successor of St. Peter, lives in a worldly pomp that no king or emperor can equal, so that in him that calls himself most holy and most spiritual there is more worldliness than in the world itself.” Manheim Township took the lead again, knowing that Theodore Roosevelt was the only President to have been born in New York City. Danville Bate tied the game yet again, recognizing Sojourner Truth from an old photo. What a game! Tied at 290 with but minutes left to play!
Danville Bate finally saw some daylight after gaining 80 unanswered points, as they knew that "The Myth of Sisyphus" by Albert Camus addressed the question of why people shouldn't commit suicide; that Peyton Manning is the NFL's most marketable player as far as commercials are concerned; that what the French called La Grande Guerre, we call World War I; and that, as seen from Earth, Jupiter is the third brightest planet. Manheim Township identified IBM as the company behind the Think Pad laptop computer, then got another math question right. Danville Bate got a quick buzz on this much information: “The Alaska Native Language Center now considers the name ‘Eskimo’ derogatory …” and then correctly guessed “Inuit.” Manheim Township knew that the fineness of detail that can be distinguished in a photographic image is called “resolution.”
At the final bell, by a score of 390-350, Danville Bate had won the first-ever Junior National Academic Championship title. It was the first time in 26 years Kentucky has claimed a national title in any Questions Unlimited-sponsored tournament. Manheim Township did finish the tournament with a No. 1 rank in average points per game: 359, to Danville Bate’s 351.
Danville Bate's Rachel Newcomb was named tournament MVP.
Danville Bate Celebrates …
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