John Augustyn

John Augustyn
Noted subjects	Current Events, Geography, Modern History, Economics, Architecture
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 won accolades across several quiz bowl organizations during his career and has scored at least twenty-five thousand points in NAQT sanctioned-events.

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 Chicagoland region of the NHBB (or its equivalents) for the next three years.

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. In his freshman year, he became the top individual scorer at the IHSSBCA's Novice Tournament in the Lincoln-Way East location, and his team won the overall tournament. John scored over three thousand points for Benet Academy in his freshman year, qualifying them for the HSNCT for the first time. 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. John placed 60th individually at HSNCT and was awarded a "Rising Star" award as a freshman. His team placed 186th out of 272 teams.

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 placed 13th in the Junior Varsity National History Bowl. 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 6 National Championship Exams . John was the highest scorer among all high schoolers in the National Recent History Exam.

In his sophomore year, John placed 10th at the 2022 Scobol Solo and tied for first place among 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