1995 IHSA State Championship Tournament

The 1995 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) State Championship Tournaments ended the ninth State Championship Series conducted in Scholastic Bowl by the IHSA. It was the fourth season in which there were separate State Championship Tournaments held for small schools (Class A) and large schools (Class AA).

Advancement

In each class, the state was divided into 16 areas, termed in Illinois as Sectionals. Each sectional hosted a tournament, the winner of which advanced to the State Championship Tournament. The determination of these geographic boundaries was arbitrarily decided by the IHSA Office.

Tournament Format

Each round was comprised of 30 toss-ups and accompanying bonus questions. The sectional tournaments and State Championship Tournament were all single elimination. Teams were randomly assigned to positions in the bracket without regard for record or performance.

The exception to the single elimination format occurred in the semifinals, where the two semifinal losers played a third place match. The top four teams earned trophies and medals for team members, coaches, principals, and activities directors. The trophies were of the design smaller than that of the athletic trophies given out by the IHSA.

CLASS A

1995 Class A IHSA State Championship Tournament

State Champion: Winnebago High School

Runner-Up: The Latin School

Third Place Princeton High School

Fourth Place Gibault Catholic High School

The Class A State Championship Tournament was held at Carlinville High School. This would be the second of three years in which Carlinville would host the Class A tournament, and would be the tournamennt's last home before reuniting with the Class AA tournament in Peoria in 1997.

One Sectional Champion did not attend this tournament. Princeton High School was thus given a bye to the quarterfinals.

Octafinals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Fairfield	298	Robinson	138
Brimfield	247	Hillsboro	59
Winnebago	372	Niantic-Harristown	146
Marengo	109	Heritage	50
Latin School	377	University	169
Gibault	257	Aledo	158
Massac County	158	Rossville-Alvin	123

Quarterfinals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Princeton	179	Fairfield	147
Winnebago	274	Brimfield	216
Latin School	311	Marengo	23
Gibault	163	Massac County	158

Semifinals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Winnebago	221	Princeton	206
Latin School	246	Gibault	122

Third Place

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Princeton	223	Gibault	149

Finals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Winnebago	272	Latin School	115

CLASS AA

1995 Class AA IHSA State Championship Tournament

State Champion: Richwoods High School

Runner-Up: New Trier High School

Third Place Quincy Senior High School

Fourth Place Maine East High School

The Class AA State Championship Tournament was held at St. Charles High School in St. Charles. This would mark the only time that the tournament would be held in the Chicago area, and the last time the tournament would not be held in Peoria.

Octafinals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
MacArthur	364	Hinsdale Central	206
Maine East	312	Hoffman Estates	251
Normal Community	324	Antioch	287
New Trier	409	Oak Forest	159
Quincy	458	Wheaton North	157
Homewood-Flossmoor	412	Plainfield	154
Highland Park	258	Centralia	236
Richwoods	269	Hononegah	162

Quarterfinals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
New Trier	270	MacArthur	179
New Trier	262	Normal Community	170
Quincy	317	Homewood-Flossmoor	222
Richwoods	199	Highland Park	119

Semifinals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
New Trier	238	Maine East	121
Richwoods	267	Quincy	225

Third Place

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Quincy	253	Maine East	212

Finals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Richwoods	221	New Trier	201

Notes

• Winnebago joined Quincy and IMSA as only the third team to win a second state title. It was also the second for their coach, Karen Niemeier.
• Latin's second place finish gave them four top-4 finishes in as many tournaments. That streak would end next year, making this the last top four finish for their coach, Rob Grierson. He would retire from coaching after the 1996 tournament.
• Richwoods won the State Championship Tournament in their first appearance, they would be the last non-Chicagoland team to claim the Class AA title until Auburn in 2008.
• Under rookie head coach David Reinstein, the Trevians had their best finish yet. The next time they would get to the Championship Match would be 2007. New Trier had some chances to win a very evenly played Final, but near the end of the match answered Bathyscape instead of Bathysphere and gave the length of the semimajor axis of an ellipse instead of the major axis.
• While none of them won the State Championship, the Central Suburban League had a banner tournament, placing three teams (Highland Park, Maine East, & New Trier) in the quarterfinals and two in the top 4. This is the only instance of one conference so dominating in a single tournament.
• Marengo's 23 points in their quarterfinal game is an all-time record for fewest points scored by any team in the State Championship Tournament.

IHSA State Championship Tournaments 1987 · 1988 · 1989 · 1990 · 1991 · 1992 · 1993 · 1994 · 1995 · 1996 · 1997 · 1998 · 1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008 · 2009 · 2010 · 2011 · 2012 · 2013 · 2014 · 2015 · 2016 · 2017 · 2018 · 2019 · 2020 (cancelled) · 2021 (cancelled) · 2022 · 2023 · 2024 Records Tournament Records Associated Individuals Sister John Baricevic (former question editor; current or former official) · Tom Egan (former question editor; former official)  · Brad Fischer (question editor)  · Rob Grierson (head of officials)  · Ron McGraw (former IHSA admin)  · Matt Laird (former official)  · Mike Laudermith (official)  · David Reinstein (former official)  · Mike Sorice (official)