The Northern Michigan University Quiz Bowl team sent three squads to the annual Academic Competition Federation (ACF) fall tournament held Oct. 19 in Minneapolis. The A squad, with a record of 10-2, finished in first place in the undergraduate division and in second place overall out of 12 teams at the tournament.
In the championship game, the Quiz Cats were narrowly defeated by a squad from the University of Minnesota by a final score of 280-270.
"This was a great tournament for us," said Michael Joy, NMU Quiz Bowl team coach and faculty adviser. "We came literally one question away from defeating the team from the University of Minnesota, which is a national powerhouse in the quiz bowl world. Our squad was very well-balanced, and our players have deep knowledge of literature, science, history and all the other areas that are asked about at major tournaments."
The NMU B squad finished in 8th place with a record of 4-7, while the C squad finished in 11th place. Leading individual scorers for NMU were graduate student Brett Mattson, who finished 5th among all competitors with 59 points per game, and senior Ella Uren, who finished 7th with 48 points per game.
Other schools represented at the Minneapolis tournament were Iowa, Drake, Michigan Tech and Cornell College.
Next up for the NMU quiz bowl team will be a friendly match against Michigan Tech later this semester, followed by the sectional championships in February. The team is working toward a return to the national championship tournament in the spring, following last year's 15th-place finish at nationals, which featured a defeat of a squad from Harvard University.