03/23/11 The Culver Academies Team after winning the Rotary Class AAA State Championship over Harrison High School of West Lafayette. From left to right: Coach Phil Blessman, Franklyn Ndubui-Obi, Stephen Paolini, Andrew Van Duyn, John Van Duyn, Nancy Shi, Adam Stathakis. Photo: Paul McLeod
Culver Academies defeated Harrison High School of West Lafayette two games to one in the final of the Rotary Large School (Class AAA) Championship to claim the $500 first place prize and a 2011 set of the Encyclopaedia Britanica. In the medium school (AA) division, South Bend-Clay defeated Riley 2-0 and in the small school division (A) North Miami High School defeated North White by two games to one to claim identical prizes. The runners-up received checks for $300, with third-place teams Hamilton Southeastern, Logansport, and Argos taking home $100 checks. Cash prizes were made possible by the generous support of St. Joseph Regional Medical Center-Plymouth, First Federal Savings and Loan, Jones Huff & Jones, Easterday & Ummel, 1st Source Bank, Teachers Credit Union, State Farm Insurance- Laurie Sutter, and the Culver Coffee Company. Full results can be found here
Twenty-two schools made the trip to Ancilla College to compete, making this the largest number of Indiana schools ever represented at one quizbowl tournament. This is also the first time small and medium school State Champions were crowned, hopefully heralding an era of increased recognition and participation for small schools.
All teams played seven or eight round robin games before the two top teams in each division faced off in the final series. In thrilling matches in all three divisions, the eventual runners-up took the Champions to the limit- Culver Academies and North Miami both clinched their championships on the last question, and Clay actually had to go to overtime to defeat Riley. Complete results and stats have been posted here.
After the final games, and the awarding of the prize money and encyclopedia sets to the top teams, top individual performers in the preliminary rounds were recognized. The top five scorers in each size category and members of the tournament all-star teams were:
Class AAA All-stars: Andrew Van Duyn (Culver Academies), Alex Pijanowski (Harrison), Sawyer Morgan (Hamilton Southeastern), Surabhi Balachander (Harrison), and Adithva Bhattachar (Carmel).
Class AA All-stars: Luke S. (Clay), Alec Radecki (Riley), Josh Overway (Logansport), Eli Morris (Logansport), and Nick Rehlander (New Prairie).
Class A All-stars: Tony H. (Argos), Jacob M. (N. Miami), Kaley B. (Pioneer), Justin Rodin (N. White), and Morgan Welker (Winamac).
The fifteen all-stars each received a hardcover copy of the “2011 World Almanac and Book of Facts.” Oliver Ford of Plymouth donated three cruise vacations which were won by Division A North White coach Kent Kiester, Division AA Logansport Coach Lorese Sharp, and Division AAA Coach Culver Academies Coach Phil Blessman. Culver Academies donated a buzzer system, which was won by LaVille High School. All students were also provided with a pizza lunch and drinks, courtesy of Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, Mancino’s, Bruno’s and Coca Cola, and other in-kind donations were furnished by The Lodge, Opie’s Deli-Coffee, Java Trail, and Fiesta Mexicana.
