TRASHionals

TRASHionals was a tournament organized by TRASH to declare their national champion. It was a tournament for open teams, for which one had to qualify at TRASH Regionals, and was held from 1998 to 2010. Interest declined over the years as the social group which formed the trash circuit in the mid-1990s gradually lost interest in quizbowl, and the quality of questions, logistics, and the atmosphere at the tournament continued to turn off new teams. After the 2010 edition, in which only 14 teams were interested in attending a "national championship tournament" held at a rural high school 80 miles from the nearest airport that was announced less than two months before it took place, the event and the TRASH organization both folded.

Top Finishers of TRASHionals

The listed school is the school or alma mater of the predominant number of team members or, if the members were split 2-2 or 1-1-1-1-1 among different schools, of the highest scorer. Note that TRASHionals results are rarely if ever counted among a team's history due to open/alum participation.

TRASH recordkeeping was often haphazard. Complete stats do not exist for most years, and oftentimes the stats that were posted do not clearly label which teams actually finished in the top four spots in the tournament. The use of pseudonyms making it unclear who was on certain teams is a constant issue. The below is the best that can be reconstructed from the information available. Like other Wiki pages, you are encouraged to add to it if you have knowledge of something that is missing.

Year Champion Second Place Third Place Fourth Place Host/Location Stats 1998 Michigan Mike Burger, Greg Seroka, Joe Janes, Anne Mitchell Cornell Dwight Kidder Penn Josh Levy and others Maryland Dave Hamilton, Dave Goodman, Michelle Cantave, Mark Swisdak College Park, MD Stats 1999 Case Western Kenny Peskin, Anthony de Jesus, Ryan Siebel, Toby Betts Michigan Haggai Elitzur, Tim Neuburger, Jon Rosenthal, Mike Shapiro, Brent ? Georgetown Unclear State College, PA Stats 2000 Michigan Mike Burger, Craig Barker, Anne Mitchell, Steve Traicoff George Mason Rick Grimes, Shawn Pickrell, others Unclear Unclear Cleveland, OH Stats 2001 Berkeley Nick Meyer, Matt Levine, Jon Pennington, Steve Kaplan Oklahoma Ben Lea, others Georgetown Phil Castagna, Tim Young, others Lee Evanston, IL Stats 2002 Oklahoma Brian Hight, Adam Mitchell, David Murphy, Jeremy White Michigan Craig Barker, Mike Burger, Haggai Elitzur, Anne Mitchell Arizona State Jason Zuffranieri, Miguel Ruiz, Trevor Schultz, Nathan Crane Maryland Arthur Fleming, John Nam, Jason Dettelbach, Ezequiel Berdichevsky Ann Arbor, MI Stats 2003 Michigan Craig Barker, others Oklahoma Brian Hight, others Georgetown Phil Castagna, Tim Young, others UTC Charlie Steinhice, Keith Hudson, others Boston, MA Stats 2004 UTC Charlie Steinhice, Keith Hudson, Robert Trent, John Kilby Yale Ben Gross, Andrew Hutchings, Kenny Peskin, Samer Ismail Oklahoma David Murphy, Brian Hight, Jeremy White, Adam Mitchell Michigan Craig Barker, Mike Burger, Anne Mitchell, Alex Hovan Chattanooga, TN Stats 2005 Oklahoma David Murphy, Brian Hight, Jeremy White, Mark Hendry George Washington Phil Castagna, Tim Young, Rick Terpstra, Josh Levy Yale Ben Gross, Andrew Hutchings, Kenny Peskin, Samer Ismail Arizona State Jason Zuffranieri, Miguel Ruiz, Trevor Schultz, Nathan Crane Pittsburgh, PA Stats More stats 2006 George Washington Phil Castagna, Tim Young, Rick Terpstra, Josh Levy Michigan Craig Barker, Mike Burger, Anne Mitchell, Julie Stahlhut Arizona State Jason Zuffranieri, Miguel Ruiz, Trevor Schultz, Nathan Crane Oklahoma Jeremy White, Mark Richey, Keith Hudson, Jason Schwengler Austin, TX Stats 2007 Michigan Craig Barker, Mike Burger, Anne Mitchell, Joe Wright UTC Dren Rollins, Michael Kearney, Al Przygocki, Chris Hendry George Washington Phil Castagna, Tim Young, Rick Terpstra, Josh Levy Oklahoma Jeremy White, Mark Richey, Brian Hight, James Quintong College Park, MD Stats 2008 UTC Meghan Clancy, Chris Hendry, Michael Kearney, Al Przygocki, Dren Rollins Michigan Craig Barker, Mike Burger, Anne Mitchell, Geoff Zmyslowski Oklahoma Arizona State Jason Zuffranieri, Miguel Ruiz, Trevor Schultz, Nathan Crane Chattanooga, TN No surviving stats. 2009 Oklahoma Jeremy White, Mark Richey, David Murphy, James Quintong Arizona State Jason Zuffranieri, Miguel Ruiz, Trevor Schultz, Nathan Crane Chicago Michael Arnold, David Seal, Nolan Esser, Adam Perkins Illinois Mike Sorice, Andrew Ullsperger, Micah Hodosh, Chris Vicich Philadelphia, PA Seven rounds of stats 2010 Oklahoma Jeremy White, Mark Richey, David Murphy, James Quintong Berkeley Matt Levine, Carlos Fisher, Hanson Ho, Phillip Huang UTC Meghan Clancy, Chris Hendry, Michael Kearney, Al Przygocki Arizona State Jason Zuffranieri, Miguel Ruiz, Trevor Schultz, Nathan Crane Athens, GA Stats Notes 1998, 2003, and 2005 results appear to be wrong on the old Maize Pages list (flipping the order of various adjacent non-first places). The order of finish listed in contemporary communication linked above is used here. Due to a paucity of stats, it is unclear which if any TRASHionals winners went undefeated. The following players were on a TRASHionals championship team and an ACF Nationals championship team: Robert Trent and Charlie Steinhice (played together on both 1991 ACF Nationals & 2004 TRASHionals champions), and Jon Pennington (2001 TRASHionals & 2003 ACF Nationals). Pennington is also the only person to win both TRASHionals and NAQT ICT in a career. Other notable trash/academic two-way players based on same-year TRASHionals performance: Dave Goodman and Dave Hamilton played for Maryland on both the fourth-place TRASHionals team and the third-place ACF Nationals team in 1998. Craig Barker won both TRASHionals and College Bowl NCT in 2000 for Michigan. Ezequiel Berdichevsky was on the fourth-place TRASHionals team in 2002 and was on the ICT and ACF Nationals championship teams in the same year. Nick Meyer, Jon Pennington, and Steve Kaplan of the 2001 TRASHionals champion Berkeley team all played on Berkeley's 7th-place ICT team that year. The 2009 3rd-place TRASHionals team from Chicago featured Michael Arnold of the 2nd-placed ACF Nationals team and David Seal of the ICT championship team. In the same year, Mike Sorice played on the 4th-place TRASHionals team, 2nd-place ICT team, and 5th-place ACF Nationals team.