1996 IHSA State Championship Tournament

The 1996 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) State Championship Tournaments ended the tenth State Championship Series conducted in Scholastic Bowl by the IHSA. It was the fifth 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. This would be the final season in which there would be sixteen sectionals per class, and sixteen teams advancing to the State Championship Tournament.

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

1996 Class A IHSA State Championship Tournament

State Champion: Niantic-Harristown High School

Runner-Up: Beardstown High School

Third Place Peoria Heights High School

Fourth Place Marquette Catholic High School

The Class A State Championship Tournament was held at Carlinville High School. This would be the third and final time which Carlinville would host the Class A tournament. Starting in 1997, the Class AA and Class A Tournaments would both move to the Peoria Civic Center.

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

Octafinals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Benton	128	Heritage	119
Niantic-Harristown	252	Hillsboro	208
Monmouth	246	Fairfield	73
Marquette	200	Wheaton Academy	146
Latin School	238	Cumberland	112
Peoria Heights	251	Winnebago	53
Sparta	151	Watseka	78

Quarterfinals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Niantic-Harristown	295	Benton	163
Marquette	264	Monmouth	215
Peoria Heights	213	Latin School	188
Beardstown	233	Sparta	201

Semifinals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Niantic-Harristown	303	Marquette	124
Beardstown	196	Peoria Heights	143

Third Place

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Peoria Heights	204	Marquette	192

Finals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Niantic-Harristown	254	Beardstown	115

CLASS AA

1996 Class AA IHSA State Championship Tournament

State Champion: Illinois Math & Science Academy

Runner-Up: MacArthur High School

Third Place Wheaton Warrenville South High School

Fourth Place Carabondale High School

The Class AA State Championship Tournament was held at Woodruff High School in Peoria. The school had previously hosted the tournament in 1994, and this would be the last time the school would host the tournament. The Class A and Class AA tournaments would move to the Peoria Civic Center for the 2007 Tournaments.

The 1996 IHSA 2A Tournament at Woodruff would mark the debut of fledgling Buzzersystems.com at the IHSA State Finals.

Octafinals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Notre Dame (Peoria)	210	Loyola Academy	158
Carbondale	188	Alan B. Shepard	111
Belvidere	269	St. Ignatius	106
IMSA	362	Bloomington	91
Quincy	260	Cary-Grove	195
Wheaton Warrenville South	237	Hinsdale Central	210
MacArthur	263	Libertyville	213
Bradley-Bourbonnais	234	Stevenson	204

Quarterfinals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Carbondale	320	Notre Dame (Peoria)	215
IMSA	299	Belvidere	276
Wheaton Warrenville South	320	Quincy	251
MacArthur	263	Bradley-Bourbonnais	243

Semifinals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
IMSA	328	Carbondale	200
MacArthur	263	Bradley-Bourbonnais	243

Third Place

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Wheaton Warrenville South	278	Carbondale	206

Finals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
IMSA	302	MacArthur	209

Notes

• The Latin School's quarterfinal loss was the last match in Rob Grierson's coaching career. Grierson would go on to add to his already significant list of accomplishments in Scholastic Bowl. He would soon become a State Official, rising to become Head of Officials at the State Championship Tournament.
• Illinois' two Jesuit high schools Loyola Academy & St. Ignatius both made their first and appearances in the State Championship Tournament. It would take until 2008 before either team (Loyola) made it back.
• Wheaton Academy in West Chicago was the first Class A school located in suburban Chicago to advance to the State Championship Tournament, and it would be the last until Lisle advanced in 2010 and 2011. Because of the way the sectional geographic boundaries are drawn, suburban Chicago is almost always entirely in the same sectional as The Latin School.
• Niantic-Harristown is the smallest public school to win an IHSA scholastic bowl state title in either class

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)