2003 NAC
| 2003 National Academic Championship | |
|---|---|
| Edited by | Questions Unlimited |
| Champion | Horace Greeley |
| Runner-up | Scripps Ranch |
| Third | Smithtown |
| Fourth | Walton |
| High scorer | Steve Melendez of Smithtown (MVP) |
| Site | Loyola University in New Orleans (May 30-June 2), Marymount University in Arlington, VA (June 5-8), and Drury Plaza Hotel in St. Louis (June 12-15) |
| Field | |
| Stats | |
Tournament Events
Won by Horace Greeley in a 375-195 final over Scripps Ranch. For reasons unknown, but possibly related to Beall's wish for a win by a team whose coach was retiring to provide a good story, the finals format was changed this year such that there was only one semifinal, in which New Orleans winner Scripps Ranch defeated St. Louis winner Walton 325-310 on a protest. DC winner Horace Greeley got a bye into the final against that match.
DC runner-up Smithtown was named "Rookie of the Year." Plano Senior was named "most improved" for going from 91st in the 2002 standings to 25th.
Horace Greeley's Sara Sheer was added to the NAC Hall of Fame after this tournament as a junior.
Lake Maracaibo Protest
In the Walton-Scripps Ranch game to determine entrance into the final, the game ended with a 310-310 tie. On a bonus asking for teams to name the largest lake by surface area on a continent, given the continent, Scripps Ranch incorrectly said "Titicaca" for South America, and Walton took the 15 points on the bounceback by giving the correct answer, "Maracaibo."
After the game, Scripps Ranch protested that Lake Maracaibo is not a lake, because it flows into the Caribbean Sea, and thus that Titicaca was correct. After consulting with a coach's "internet computer" and calling "NAA chief judge Mike Mastandrea," Beall decided to throw the question out and read a replacement on Lake Ladoga to Scripps Ranch, who got it right to win the game.
After the tournament, Beall enticed "geologist Thomas McGuire" to provide this quote "A lake is, by definition, a large body of water, surrounded by land, and not directly connected to the ocean. ... So Lago de Maracaibo is not a lake. It is, in fact, an embayment of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Venezuela."
Of course, the above is nonsense, as all lakes have outlets to the ocean, and the authoritative Encyclopedia Britannica clearly states that Maracaibo is the largest lake in South America.
Beall's description of the protest
Questions
Some questions from this tournament:
What type of bonds form between matched base pairs of a double-stranded DNA molecule?
"After Abraham defeated the armies of Chedorlaomer, he visited this priest-king, who provided bread and wine and blessed him in the name of the "Most High God." Name him."
One question in the New Orleans final asked for the name of an F. Scott Fitzgerald book whose title in French would be "Les Heureux et les damnes," but supplied the non-existent Fitzgerald book "The Beautiful and the Damned" as the listed answer. Fitzgerald in fact wrote a book called "The Beautiful and Damned."
Field
The 105-team field, as ranked on the QU website.
- 1. Horace Greeley A
- 2. Scripps Ranch
- 3. Walton
- 4. Smithtown
- 5. Kellenberg Memorial
- 6. Plano East A
- 7. Brookwood
- 8. Apollo
- 9. East Brunswick
- 10. Bellaire Team A
- 11. Chaska
- 12. Kinkaid
- 13. Harrison High School
- 14. Hastings Team A
- 15. Manheim Township
- 16. Booker T. Washington
- 17. Liberty
- 18. Coronado
- 19. Irvington
- 20. High Technology - Team A
- 21. Charter School of Wilmington
- 22. Horace Greeley B
- 23. New Rochelle
- 24. Plano Senior
- 25. Lamar
- 26. Warren Central
- 27. Roseville Area
- 28. Lancaster Catholic
- 29. Madison Central
- 30. Elizabethtown Area
- 31. Waramaug
- 32. Fort Ann Central
- 33. Saint Thomas Academy
- 34. Riverside
- 35. Sterling
- 36. Jackson Prep
- 37. High Technology - Team B
- 38. Fairfield Community
- 39. White Plains A
- 40. White Plains B
- 41. Elkhorn High School
- 42. Fisher Catholic
- 43. Jesuit
- 44. Aiken
- 45. Latin School of Chicago
- 46. Clark
- 47. East Varsity
- 47. Lenape
- 47. Seaholm High School
- 50. St. John's Prep
- 51. Altamont School
- 52. Martin County B
- 53. Stephens County
- 54. Rye Neck High School
- 55. Edgemont
- 56. Heritage High School
- 56. Marshall HS
- 58. Vandebilt Catholic
- 59. Oshkosh West
- 60. Irmo A
- 61. Bellaire Team B
- 62. Carlisle
- 63. Middletown
- 64. Boyd County
- 65. Dwight D. Eisenhower (IL)
- 66. Delaware Valley
- 67. Manheim Central
- 68. Pingry School
- 69. Briarcliff
- 70. St. Marys
- 71. Eureka
- 72. Plano East B
- 73. Antilles
- 74. Dwight D. Eisenhower (MI)
- 75. Salisbury School
- 76. Cistercian Preparatory School
- 77. Shepton
- 78. Bromfield
- 79. Blessed Sacrament Huguenot
- 80. Hastings Team B
- 81. Drummond
- 82. Onslow County
- 83. Kennewick
- 84. Mounds View
- 85. Chautauqua Lake Central School
- 85. East JV
- 87. Caney Valley
- 88. Alief Hastings
- 89. Lancaster
- 90. Bishop Garrigan
- 91. Ridgeland
- 92. Alief Taylor
- 93. Klein Forest
- 94. South Medford
- 94. St. Joseph's
- 96. Martin County A
- 97. Ripley
- 98. Notre Dame
- 99. Hempfield
- 100. Irmo B
- 101. Socorro
- 102. Lakota
- 103. Granville Central School
- 104. North Kossuth
- 105. Southern Cal
Links
- Beall's tournament summary
- Standings, records, points, and ranking
- New Orleans preliminary results
- Washington preliminary results
- St. Louis preliminary results
- New Orleans playoff bracket
- Washington playoff bracket)
- St. Louis playoff bracket with overall final four
- Tournament staffer blurbs, not including first-time moderator Brad Rutter
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