Blue Hen

The Blue Hen is a high school quizbowl tournament held every March at the University of Delaware. Run on NAQT questions, it tends to attract a mid-size field of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. teams.

Originally the tournament only allowed Delaware teams to participate. Starting with Blue Hen III the field was opened up to outside schools. The top Delaware school receives the Founders' Trophy, which contains the names of the Delaware ACC members on the team in 1999. There was a four-year stretch when non-Delaware teams won the overall title, but now this trophy has become less important since Wilmington Charter has won the tournament (and thus won both trophies).

The names listed on the Founders Cup are David Balseiro, Richard (Hayden) Hurst, Dave DeForge, Kate Gample-Wallenjeck, Rajeev Gorowara, Arnadlo Gutierez, Eric, and Michael Rulon.

One feature popular with some teams is the trash round. Many years this is run while a set of pairings is being calculated, either a late preliminary or the playoff bracket.

Results

Blue Hen	Champion	Second	Third	Fourth	Field size	Notes
XI (2009)	Wilmington Charter A	Half Hollow Hills West A	Wilmington Charter C	Moravian	34	results
X (2008)	Wilmington Charter A	Moravian	Half Hollow Hills West A	Wilmington Charter B	26	results
IX (2007)	Wilmington Charter A	Gonzaga	Walter Johnson	Wilmington Charter B	20	results About 36 teams were expected, but a snowstorm made travel from the north difficult.
VIII (2006)	Wilmington Charter B	Wilmington Charter A	Wilmington Charter C	Gonzaga	24	Instead of brackets, preliminary rounds were swiss-paired for the first time
VII (2005)	Gonzaga	Blair	Wilmington Charter A	Manheim Township A	17	results
VI (2004)	Benjamin Banneker	Howard A	A.I. Dupont A	Kellenberg Memorial	24
V (2003)	Gonzaga	Wilmington Charter A	Manheim Township A	Blake	41	results Around 48 teams were expected, but several had to drop out when the U.S. invaded Iraq and districts banned outside travel.
IV (2002)	Kellenberg Memorial A	Wilmington Charter A	Seton Hall Prep A	Manheim Township A	31	results
III (2001)	Archmere A	Council Rock A	Wilmington Charter A	Warwick B	30	results
II (2000)	Caesar Rodney A	Wilmington Charter A	Archmere A	Archmere B	14	results
I (1999)	Archmere A	Caesar Rodney A	Caesar Rodney B	Archmere B	12	results

Outside Links

• University of Delaware page
• Wilmington Charter page