John Augustyn

John Augustyn
Noted subjects	Current Events, Geography, History
High school	Stanford Online (2019–), Benet Academy (2021-)
Middle school	Notre Dame Catholic (2019–2021)
Stats	HDWhite • NAQT Profile

John Augustyn is a quiz bowl player who formerly played for Notre Dame Catholic School and currently plays at Benet Academy in Lisle, Illinois. He has, over the course of his career, scored at least twenty thousand points and won accolades across several quiz bowl organizations.

Career

Elementary

John's first foray into quiz bowl was in the 5th grade, when he won the 2018 Chicago Regional National History Bee, he would go on to win in the Chicago region for the next three years as well.

In 2018, John was a quarterfinalist in the elementary division of the National History Bee and won the International Geography Bee (IGB).

Middle school

In 2019, he placed 2nd at both the National History Bee and the National History Bowl and was a finalist at the IGB.

In 2020, he placed 6th at the History Bowl and 3rd at the IGB. He was also a finalist in the US History Bee and US Academic Bee.

In 2021, he won the United States Geography Championships at the 8th Grade level, and placed 3rd in the middle school National History Bee, 5th in the US History Bee, and was a semifinalist for both the US Academic Bee and the International Geography Bee.

Throughout his career, John has primarily played in the bee format, often playing team events like bowl and standard quiz bowl solo as well. In May 2020, John was mentioned on episode 12 ("Rise of the Terminators") of the quiz bowl podcast "For 10 Points", where hosts Ken Romeo and Andrew Turriago named him as an example of the title "terminator": an individual player who dominates a tournament. Throughout his middle school career, John scored over eight thousand points over 68 games, giving him an average points per game of 120.

High school

In September 2019, John joined the quiz bowl team of Stanford Online High School as a 7th grader. In August of 2022, due to NAQT rule clarifications and an increasing number of in-person tournaments, John took on a lessened role with Stanford Online's quiz bowl team.

In September 2021, John joined the scholastic bowl team of Benet Academy, a parochial, religious school located in Lisle, Illinois.

While playing for Benet Academy in his freshman year, he became the top individual scorer at the IHSSBCA's Novice Tournament in the Homewood-Flossmoor location, and his team won the overall tournament. He became the first player in school history to make the IHSSBCA All-State Team (Class AA), and only the 3rd player in school history to make the All-Sectional team.

An image of the 2022 members of the IHSSBCA's All-State Team, which included John Augustyn.

In 2022, John won two regions for the 2022 National History Bee [Chicagoland, Central Illinois] and won the National History Bowl in the Central Illinois region. He was a quarterfinalist in the Junior Varsity Division of the 2022 National History Bee, and he placed 16th in the 2022 Junior Varsity National History Bowl, despite playing solo. John finished fourth in the inaugural National Political Science Bee (JV Division), placed 7th in the JV Division of the US History Bee, 6th in the 2022 US Geography Championships (JV), and was a semifinalist in the International Geography Bee. Finally, John won the most exams and medals of anyone in the 2022 National History Bee and Bowl, earning medals in 7 National Championship Exams (Women's History, Black History, Historical Geography, Latin American History, Asian History, and Recent History), and placing 1st in 4 of those 7. Notably, John Augustyn was the highest scorer among all high schoolers in the National Recent History Exam, beating out every Varsity test taker. This is the only time that such an upset has happened in IAC National Championship Exam history.

In his 2022 season, John scored over three thousand points for Benet Academy in his freshman year, and his performance allowed his team to travel to HSNCT for the first time in its history. John placed 60th individually in the tournament, and was awarded a "Rising Star" award as a freshman. His team placed 186th out of 272 teams.

In October of 2022, John placed 10th at the 2022 Scobol Solo, and tying for first place among all sophomores. He also won the Current Events category of the tournament.

Other Awards:

• International Geography Bee - National Champion in 2018
• National Recent History Exam - National Champion (V + JV) in 2022
• National Historical Geography Exam - National Champion in 2020 and 2022, 2nd Place in 2021
• United States Geography Championships - 7th Place in 2020, National Champion in 2021, 6th Place in 2022
• 2021 Northwestern Junior Wildcat Tournament - Champion and Top Scorer