2024 IHSA State Championship Tournament

The 2024 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) State Championship Tournaments ended the thirty-eighth State Championship Series conducted in Scholastic Bowl by the IHSA. It was the thirty-third season in which there were separate State Championship Tournaments held for small schools (Class A) and large schools (Class AA). This was the third year both tournaments were held at Heartland Community College in Normal, Illinois. The tournaments were held Saturday, March 16th.

This state series was the seventh to be written under the guidance of head question editor Brad Fischer.

The tournament was hosted by Elmwood with equipment furnished by Buzzersystems.com.

Advancement

Teams were assigned to one of eight sectionals within each class. Coaches then seeded the top 8 teams in their sectional. The IHSA then assigned the seeded teams to one of four regionals (1 with 8, 2 with 7, etc), with the remainder of the teams assigned to a regional geographically. The winners of the regionals would advance to their respective sectional tournaments, where they would play a three match round robin to determine a winner. The determination of the geographic boundaries of the Sectional was arbitrarily decided by the IHSA Office. Regional tournaments were held on Monday, March 4th, and Sectional tournaments were held on Saturday, March 9th.

Tournament Format

Each round was comprised of 24 toss-ups and accompanying bonus questions.

In the State Championship Tournament, teams were randomly assigned to pools of four, and played a three match round robin. The winners of each pool advanced to the Championship Match, and the runners-up in each pool advanced to play for third place. Ties were broken by head-to-head results or total points scored among tied teams (in the event of a three-way tie).

The top four teams earned trophies and medals for team members, coaches, principals, and activities directors.

CLASS A

2023 Class A IHSA State Championship Tournament

State Champion: Metro-East Lutheran

Runner-Up: Winnebago

Third Place Johnston City

Fourth Place Pleasant Plains

POOL #1

Winnebago swept their pool going 3-0. Pleasant Plains went 2-1 to advance to the 3rd place match.

Round	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
1	Pleasant Plains	340	Cumberland	150
	Winnebago	340	El Paso-Gridley	50
2	Winnebago	290	Cumberland	170
	Pleasant Plains	270	El Paso-Gridley	130
3	Cumberland	150	El Paso-Gridley	90
	Winnebago	230	Pleasant Plains	220

POOL #2

Metro-East Lutheran swept their pool going 3-0. Johnston City went 2-1 to advance to the 3rd place match.

Round	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
1	Johnston City	370	Bloomington Central Catholic	220
	Metro-East Lutheran	400	Lisle	300
2	Metro-East Lutheran	320	Bloomington Central Catholic	220
	Johnston City	330	Lisle	260
3	Lisle	470	Bloomington Central Catholic	220
	Metro-East Lutheran	390	Johnston City	240

Third Place

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Johnston City	350	Pleasant Plains	150

Finals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Metro-East Lutheran	300	Winnebago	200

CLASS AA

2023 Class AA IHSA State Championship Tournament

State Champion: Buffalo Grove

Runner-Up: Waubonsie Valley

Third Place University of Illinois Lab

Fourth Place Carbondale

POOL #1

Waubonsie Valley swept their pool going 3-0. Carbondale went 2-1 to advance to the 3rd place match.

Round	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
1	Rockford Auburn	390	Macomb	210
	Waubonsie Valley	400	Carbondale	340
2	Waubonsie Valley	540	Macomb	140
	Carbondale	400	Auburn	250
3	Carbondale	400	Macomb	160
	Waubonsie Valley	370	Auburn	290

POOL #2

Buffalo Grove swept their pool going 3-0. Uni-Lab went 2-1 to advance to the 3rd place game.

Round	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
1	Uni-Lab	390	Homewood-Flossmoor	320
	Buffalo Grove	440	Walter Payton	370
2	Uni-Lab	570	Walter Payton	190
	Buffalo Grove	730	Homewood-Flossmoor	130
3	Buffalo Grove	480	Uni-Lab	370
	Walter Payton	410	Homewood-Flossmoor	190

Third Place

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Uni-Lab	530	Carbondale	130

Finals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Buffalo Grove	460	Waubonsie Valley	370

Notes

• The 2024 IHSA Tournament saw several State Finals debuts including El Paso-Gridley, Bloomington Central Catholic, Waubonsie Valley, & Walter Payton. In the case of Payton - the first representative from the Chicago Public League to advance to state.
• While this was Auburn's record 21st consecutive trip to the finals, this is the first IHSA Tournament since 2001 not to feature Auburn in the top-4.
• This is the first IHSA Tournament since 2008 to crown two new State champions for both classes in the same year.
• Metro-East Lutheran are the first southern Illinois IHSA State champions in either class since Litchfield (2014-1A).

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)