VCU

Virginia Commonwealth University
Location: Richmond, VA
Current President or Coach	President: Najwa Watson Coach: Matt Weiner
National championships	2005 NAQT Undergraduate 2011 NAQT Undergraduate
NAQT Page	link

VCU's quizbowl team is currently building a perfect society in which the mistakes of the past will be eliminated.

History

During the 1980s, VCU played College Bowl and hosted high school tournaments. Team members included Jim Lehman, Pam Kiely, Julie Savage, Randy Pittman, Carson Martin, Jim Comer, and Chris Aliff. VCU finished last at College Bowl Regionals in 1984, ninth out of twenty-four teams in 1985, and fourth (one spot above UVa) in 1986, which also saw VCU defeat Duke "by a big point spread." VCU also attended an unknown invitational tournament in 1985, finishing second. Chris Aliff was named co-MVP of the 1986 Regionals along with a player from Vanderbilt. This team remained active beyond the College Bowl intramural/regional series at least through the 1987-1988 year, and hosted three high school tournaments in the spring of 1986, 1987, and 1988. The team's faculty sponsor was Edith White.

A second incarnation of the VCU team, about which nothing else is known, attended a 1993 invitational tournament at Virginia as per this Usenet post, and a team from VCU participated in College Bowl again at least in 1996 according to College Bowl's database (as well as 1991 according to noted villain Tom Michael's page).

The modern program of VCU quizbowl was founded by Matt Weiner in November 2002 by virtue of his attendance at the ACF Fall tournament held by Case Western. Tournaments won by VCU in this time period were the 2003 NAQT Sectionals at Virginia, the 2003 Princeton Buzzerfest, the 2004 Maryland Terrapin, the 2005 NAQT Sectionals, the 2005 Manu Ginobili/Tony Parker at Maryland, the undergraduate title at the 2005 ICT, the 2006 ACF Regionals at Princeton, the 2006 UNC tournament, the 2007 NAQT Sectionals at George Mason, and the 2007 Maryland Terrapin. Evan Adams and Andrew Alexander became team mainstays for the next two years, with George Berry, Cody Voight, and Sean Smiley all joining the team in fall 2009. Sometimes with the aid of dual-enrolled high schooler Tommy Casalaspi, the team went on to finish second to Maryland infinity times, also winning the 2010 ACF Winter tournament at NC Wesleyan and the 2011 Region 5 Division II Sectionals. VCU has an ongoing five-year streak of SCT Undergraduate championships beginning in 2009.

At the 2011 ICT, VCU's Division I team finished third overall and won the Undergraduate championship, while VCU's Division II team finished fourth. The overall third place finish tied 2011 VCU with 2009 Minnesota as the highest-finishing Undergraduate team in the history of the ICT. A VCU team led by Sean Smiley and Cody Voight also won the 2011 ACF Fall site at UVa, and a team containing Smiley, Voight, and Berry finished a strong 14th at ACF Nationals in 2012, losing only to Rice in the second playoff bracket.

While providing facts to a reporter on the Andy Watkins Cheating Scandal and its effects on VCU, team members discovered that only four programs--VCU, Chicago, Illinois, and Maryland--have finished in the Top 25 or higher of a national championship tournament every year since 2005.

Tournaments Hosted

VCU is an extremely active tournament host at the high school, collegiate, and open levels. VCU has hosted various one-off collegiate tournaments and attempts to host four high school tournaments and one summer open tournament each year: VCU Fall Tournament, VCU Winter Tournament, VCU Spring Tournament, VCU Season Finale Tournament, and VCU Open. As of November 2013, VCU has hosted fifty-two quizbowl tournaments, averaging more than eight tournaments hosted per year since spring 2008.

This table lists tournaments organized by the VCU team, even if they were physically held elsewhere. It excludes tournaments organized by others, such as CaTO/TaCO and CULT, even if they were held at VCU, and tournaments organized by people who were affiliated with the VCU team but acting as individuals in hosting the event. It does not include the three high school tournaments hosted by the 1980s VCU team, which went defunct and has no lineal connection with the team started in 2002.

Date Name Level Champion Runner-up Stats Question Set 12/7/13 VCU Winter Tournament VI High School Dorman A Maggie Walker A Stats NAQT IS-132 11/9/13 Collaborative tournament with UVa High School Maggie Walker A Richard Montgomery Stats HSAPQ Tournament 42 10/12/13 VCU MFT Mirror Collegiate UVa A Maryland A Stats MFT 10/05/13 VCU Fall Tournament V High School Western Albemarle Maggie Walker Stats NAQT IS-128 8/4/13 Triacontakaipentagon Open Matt Bollinger, Tommy Casalaspi, Evan Adams, David Seal Matt Weiner, Aidan Mehigan, Andrew Feist Stats Triacontakaipentagon 8/3/13 VCU Open 2013 Open Matt Bollinger, Tommy Casalaspi, Evan Adams, David Seal John Lawrence, Marshall Steinbaum, Max Schindler, Doug Graebner Stats 2013 VCU Open 4/20/13 VCU Season Finale Tournament VI High School Loyola Montgomery Blair Stats 2013 BHSAT 4/6/13 MUT Mid-Atlantic Mirror Collegiate UVa A St. Luke's Stats 2013 MUT 3/16/13 VCU Spring Tournament V High School Maggie Walker A Montgomery Blair Stats 2013 LIST 2/2/13 VCU Closed Collegiate UVa A Chicago Stats 2013 VCU Closed 12/1/12 VCU Winter Tournament V High School Guilford A Richard Montgomery Stats NAQT IS-122 10/13/12 VCU Fall Tournament IV High School Maggie Walker A Montgomery Blair Stats NAQT IS-118 4/14/12 MUT Mid-Atlantic Mirror Collegiate Maryland B Penn Stats 2012 MUT 3/10/12 VCU Spring Tournament IV High School HH Academy St. Anselm's Stats 2012 VCU-Ohio State Set 12/10/11 VCU Winter Tournament IV High School St. Anselm's Georgetown Day Stats NAQT IS-111 8/7/11 Cheyne-Berry Trash Mirror Open David Seal, Rob Carson, Bernadette Spencer, Sam Bailey Carsten Gehring, Evan Nagler, Dan Passner, Jon Pinyan Stats Cheyne-Berry Trash 8/6/11 VCU Open 2011 Open Eric Mukherjee, Ted Gioia, Ike Jose, Chris Ray Will Butler, Matt Bollinger, Rob Carson, Sarah Angelo Stats 2011 VCU Open 5/21/11 VCU Season Finale Tournament V High School Cave Spring St. Luke's Stats 2011 LIST 5/1/11 NAQT Mid-Atlantic Championship 2011 High School St. Anselm's Thomas Jefferson Stats NAQT 2011 SCT Division II 4/2/11 NAQT Virginia Championship 2011 High School Maggie Walker A Thomas Jefferson B Stats NAQT IS-105 3/26/11 VCU Spring Tournament III High School Maggie Walker A Thomas Jefferson A Nope 2011 Prison Bowl 1/23/11 VCU Winter Tournament III High School Maggie Walker A St. Anselm's Stats 2011 VCU-Vanderbilt Set 11/20/10 VCU Fall Tournament III High School Maggie Walker A Clover Hill Stats HSAPQ Tournament 15 10/03/10 Early Fall Tournament Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Maryland A Carnegie Mellon A Stats EFT 2010 8/8/10 VCU Open 2010: Sunday Tournament Open Jerry Vinokurov, Will Butler, Ian Eppler Matt Jackson, Matt Bollinger, Isaac Hirsch, Eric Mukherjee Stats 2010 VCU Open Sunday 8/7/10 VCU Open 2010: Saturday Tournament Open Eric Mukherjee, Chris Ray, Matt Bollinger, Dominic Machado Jonathan Magin, Will Butler, Doug Graebner, Paul Marchsteiner Stats 2010 VCU Open Saturday 5/1/10 NAQT Mid-Atlantic Championship 2010 High School Maggie Walker St. Anselm's Stats NAQT 2010 SCT Division II 4/24/10 VCU Season Finale Tournament IV High School Maggie Walker Thomas Jefferson A Stats 2010 Prison Bowl 1/23/10 VCU Spring Tournament II High School Maggie Walker St. Anselm's Stats 2009 University of Georgia Fall Tournament 12/5/09 VCU Winter Tournament II High School Maggie Walker Georgetown Day Stats NAQT IS-90 11/22/09 Delta Burke Mid-Atlantic Mirror Collegiate Maryland UVa Stats 2009 Delta Burke 11/8/09 TRASH Regionals Mid-Atlantic Open Matt Weiner and Sean Smiley Maryland A Stats 2009 TRASH Regionals 11/7/09 VCU Fall Tournament II High School Maggie Walker A Maggie Walker B Stats 2009 HFT 10/31/09 ACF Fall 2009 Mid-Atlantic Collegiate State College Maggie Walker Stats 2009 ACF Fall 8/8/09 VCU Open 2009 Open Brendan Byrne, Tommy Casalaspi, Shantanu Jha, David Seal Ike Jose, Eric Mukherjee, Chris Ray, Evan Adams Stats 2009 VCU Open 5/9/09 NAQT Virginia Championship 2009 High School Maggie Walker Collegiate School Stats NAQT IS-85 4/18/09 VCU Season Finale Tournament III High School State College Dorman Stats HSAPQ Tournament 6 3/22/09 Experiment II Mid-Atlantic Site Open Matt Weiner, Tommy Casalaspi, Brennan Downey Shantanu Jha, Doug Graebner, Cameron Orth Stats 2009 The Experiment 3/22/09 FICHTE II Mid-Atlantic Site Open Maryland A Chicago Stats 2009 FICHTE 2/21/09 VCU Spring Tournament I High School Walter Johnson Dorman Stats HSAPQ Tournament 3 12/13/08 VCU Winter Tournament I High School Maggie Walker Cosby Stats HSAPQ Tournament 5 11/16/08 VCU Fall Tournament I High School Walter Johnson Maggie Walker A Stats 2008 HFT 11/08/08 ACF Fall 2008 Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Maryland A Penn Stats 2008 ACF Fall 8/17/08 Zot Bowl East Coast Mirror Open Brendan Byrne, Andrew Hart, Trevor Davis, Gautam Kandlikar Chris Ray, Keith Jamison, Rebecca Fischer, Leonard Chang Stats ZOT Bowl 8/16/08 VCU Open 2008 Open Jerry Vinokurov, Ted Gioia, Henry Gorman, Andy Watkins Brendan Byrne, Andrew Hart, Trevor Davis, Gautam Kandlikar Stats 2008 VCU Open 5/03/08 VCU Season Finale Tournament II High School Dorman A Thomas Jefferson A Stats 2008 PACE Regular Season Set 3/22/08 MUT Mid-Atlantic Mirror Collegiate Maryland A Maryland B Stats 2008 MUT 2/23/08 VCU Last-Minute Tournament High School Thomas Jefferson A Dorman A Stats NAQT IS-74 11/3/07 ACF Fall 2007 Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Maryland A North Carolina A Stats 2007 ACF Fall 5/05/07 VCU Season Finale Tournament I High School Maggie Walker Dorman Stats 2007 PACE Regular Season Set 3/10/07 VCU Open 2007 Open Maggie Walker Maryland Stats 2007 Illinois Novice 11/15/03 Illinois Open East Open Maryland Duke Stats 2003 Illinois Open The most frequent winner of high school tournaments held by VCU is Maggie Walker, who has won 16 of 28 high school tournaments held. The most frequent winner of collegiate tournaments held by VCU is Maryland, who has won 6 of 10 college tournaments held. The most frequent winners of open tournaments held by VCU are Chris Ray, Matt Bollinger, and Tommy Casalaspi, who each have been on 3 winning teams out of the 14 open tournaments held. Title Succession NAQT ICT Division I Undergraduate Champion Preceded by Year Succeeded by Illinois 2005 Williams NAQT ICT Division I Undergraduate Champion Preceded by Year Succeeded by Minnesota 2011 Ohio State External Links Virginia Commonwealth University at NAQT