Alex Dzurick

Alex Dzurick
Current college	University of Missouri-Columbia
Past colleges	None
High school	South Callaway
Stats	HDWhite • NAQT

Player from the University of Missouri-Columbia, formerly of South Callaway. Alex also competed at the junior high level.

High School Career

Alex is the founder of the William Woods Academic Tournament. A four-year varsity player, he has posted impressive scores throughout his high school career, including the third highest points-per-game in the state for the 2008 MSHSAA district series (as a senior) and the fourth highest points-per-game in the 2006 MSHSAA Class 3 state championships (as a sophomore).

Before Alex's senior year of quiz bowl play, his team never attended outside tournaments. After founding the William Woods tournament, he convinced his coach to sign the team up for the Warrenton Warrior Classic and Helias tournaments. Due to scheduling conflicts, the team could not attend Helias, but Alex made the 25-minute trek to Jefferson City alone to watch other schools play, mostly following around Boonville's team since he had a couple of friends from there.

Among his non-quiz-bowl-nerd friends, Alex is known to obsess over quiz bowl and trivia of any kind, as evidenced by his trip to the Helias tournament as stated above and similar trips to the state series in 2005, 2007, and 2008. He prefers the term "quiz bowl" as two words over the "mashed-together" quizbowl version. He competed in the 2006 Missouri Scholars Academy scholar bowl, and lost only a team of scholars led by fellow quiz bowler Terin Budine of Savannah.

Alex was an active member of the Missouri Academic Competition Message Board while in high school. Along with Taylor Smith and Kelson Rosbach of Hallsville and Ravi Fernando of Kirksville, Alex attended the Truman State summer novice open tournament in August 2008.

Records and Results

Individual

• 2005 MSHSAA All-District (C3D4) Team
• 2006 MSHSAA All-District (C3D4) Team
  • 1st place - 11.40 avg. tossups per game (tpg)
• 2006 MSHSAA All-State Class 3 Team
  • 4th place - 7.0 tpg
• 2007 Mid-Missouri All-Conference Team
• 2007 MSHSAA All-District (C3D4) Team
  • 2nd place - 13.75 tpg
• 2008 Warrenton Warrior Classic Tournament
  • 2nd place
• 2008 Mid-Missouri All-Conference Team
• 2008 MSHSAA All-District (C3D4) Team
  • 1st place - 20.2 tpg (3rd highest in the state)

Team

• 2005 MSHSAA C3D4 Series: 2nd place vs. School of the Osage
• 2006 MSHSAA C3D4 Series: 1st place vs. School of the Osage
• 2007 MSHSAA C3D4 Series: 2nd place vs. Hallsville
• 2008 MSHSAA C3D4 Series: 2nd place vs. Hallsville
• 2006 MSHSAA Class 3 State Series: 4th place
• 2007 Mid-Missouri Conference Tournament: 1st place vs. Hallsville
• 2008 Mid-Missouri Conference Tournament: 2nd place vs. Hallsville
• 2008 Warrenton Warrior Classic Tournament: 4th place
• 2008 William Woods Academic Tournament: 2nd place vs. Centralia

Rivals

Alex's main quiz bowl rival was Taylor Smith of Hallsville, a conference and district opponent. In addition, a rivalry with Charles Hang developed after the 2008 Warrenton tournament. Dzurick, Smith, and Hang are all alumni of the Missouri Scholars Academy.

University of Missouri

While at Mizzou, Alex has been involved in planning the structure of the University of Missouri Quizbowl Club along with fellow Mizzou freshman Charlie Dees. He served as co-tournament director for the first annual Missouri Fall Academic Tournament on November 1, 2008, and the first annual Tiger Bowl on January 24, 2009, and acted as MSHSAA liaison for both tournaments. He attended the ACF Winter tournament in Rolla, NAQT Sectionals Midwest at Washington University, Cardinal Classic XVIII at Stanford and ACF Regionals at Chicago.

Alex was elected president of the 2009-10 Mizzou club on April 22, 2009. His term begins following the completion of the 2009 spring semester.

Alex is also a founding member of the Missouri Quizbowl Alliance and serves as the group's secretary.