2004 NAC

2004 National Academic Championship
Edited by	Questions Unlimited
Champion	St. Thomas
Runner-up	Elizabethtown
Third	Horace Greeley
Fourth	West Chester East
High scorer	Jeff Ditzler of Elizabethtown (MVP)
Site	Loyola University in New Orleans (May 28-31), Marymount University in Arlington, VA (June 3-6), and Drury Plaza Hotel in St. Louis (June 11-14)
Field
Stats

Won by St. Thomas Academy of Minnesota in a protest-marred 330-315 final over Elizabethtown of Pennsylvania. Both finals teams came out of the St. Louis prelims, with St. Thomas defeating New Orleans champion West Chester East in one semifinal, and Elizabethtown beating DC champion Horace Greeley 370-345 in the other.

Tournament Events

Two New Orleans playoff games were decided on sudden-death tiebreakers. One of the questions was "Most of the 80 million citizens of Vietnam inhabit two large river deltas, one each in the former North Vietnam and South Vietnam. Name them."

The other tiebreaker was "Which English poet penned these lines: 'In what distant deeps or skies, / Burnt the fire of thine eyes? / On what wings did he aspire? / What the hand dare seize the fire?'". This question was answered by West Chester East to win their quarterfinal over Wilmington Charter. Regrettably, this match was marred by a nasty protest. In their lightning round West Chester East had "what chemical element was named after...". Unfortunately, they forgot the lead-in mid-category and started to give answers such as "Berkley" rather than "Berkelium". After time expired Chip decided to give the team another chance since "they forgot". Wilmington Charter protested, but the protest was denied. The score was updated and ended in a tie after the fourth quarter, and Wilmington Charter lost in double overtime. This round also involved a dubious second oppurtunity given to West Chester East on a tossup leading to a bonus in the second round where Wilmington Charter answered something akin to "the second one" in a multiple choice tossup and were not given credit while Elise Lenthe on West Chester East gave the accepted answer without being directly prompted (Chip eventually ruled in East's favor because one of the judges had non-verbally recognized Elise by looking at her, but it didn't matter much in the end because the replacement tossup on Monaco was not converted).

Pocono Mountain West and Brebeuf Jesuit were both named "Rookie of the Year."

Ripley was named "most improved team" for going from 97th in 2003 to 17th in 2004.

Championship-Deciding Protest

Following the final train whistle in the championship match, the scoreboard showed Elizabethtown 335, St. Thomas 330. St. Thomas team member Blake Hovander lodged a protest over this earlier math calculation tossup:

"Solve for all values of x between 0 and 360 degrees: sine squared x equals 1/4."

Elizabethtown had earned 20 points by giving the answer on the paper of "30 and 150 degrees." St. Thomas contended (correctly) that the actual answer was "30, 150, 210, and 330 degrees," and that the points should be taken away from Elizabethtown.

While this was an entirely legitimate protest, its questionable aspects include the fact that a bad question with the wrong answer was included in the finals match, that Elizabethtown was celebrating its apparent victory before the protest was announced, that Beall has eliminated any mention of it from his tournament summary (reporting the end-of-game scenario as a St Thomas player buzzing in to put his team in the lead, rather than put them within the margin of the upcoming protest), and that Beall no longer links to the below page on his site explaining what happened.

Beall's description of the protest

Additionally, a person who may be Hovander, but who was definitely one of the St. Thomas team members, later posted this on a non-quizbowl forum to continue the tradition of sportsmanship among NAC winners:

“	I was the Captain of my school's Quiz Bowl team this last year and we won the national tournament. http://www.qunlimited.com/national.htm is the site for it. Definitly the top thing that happened in my life, and it was a really big deal for everyone. I won the first national championship at my high school, which was suffering from it's first year of no state championships in a long long time. Also, I won by being a complete dickhead to the other team... so that makes me proud.	„

Questions

Some questions from the tournament:

"Who immortalized the world of American finance with a painting entitled The New Orleans Cotton Exchange?"

"When slaves escaped and hurried north on the Underground Railroad, they were given some directions. They were advised to follow, not Ursa Major or the Big Dipper or the Plough, but what?"

"You can read some of the classics online at which web site, named for a Melville short story character?"

"Translate the opera title 'Rustic Chivalry' from English to Italian."

"Identify the two planets with atmospheres predominantly of carbon dioxide."

"What is Monster.com?"

"In Emily Dickinson's poem 'Because I Could Not Stop for Death,' who was the other person in the carriage in addition to the narrator and Death?"

"What adjective describes a solution in which the concentration of dissolved particles outside the cell is greater than the concentration of dissolved particles inside the cell?"

"What Hemingway novel made Pamplona's "Running of the Bulls" famous?"

"When Odysseus was being punished by Poseidon, who was the one immortal who begged Zeus to save the long suffering hero?"

Field

The 112-team field, as ranked on the QU website.

1. Saint Thomas Academy
2. Elizabethtown Area High School
3. Horace Greeley A
4. East High School - Varsity
5. White Plains High School
6. High Technology - Team A
7. Manheim Township High School
8. Booker T. Washington
9. Holland Hall Upper School
10. Hastings High School Team A
11. Bellaire High School - Team A
12. Irmo A
13. Chaska High School
14. Charter School of Wilmington
15. Scripps Ranch High School
16. Aiken High School
17. Ripley High School
18. Edmond North HS
19. Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School
20. Dwight D. Eisenhower High School
21. Edgemont High School
22. Horace Greeley B
23. Pocono Mountain West High School
24. Harrison A
25. Walton High School
26. Brookwood High School
27. Auburn High School - Team Red
28. Irvington HS - Team A
29. Plano Senior High School
30. Team Waramaug
31. West High School
32. Klein High School
33. Byram Hills High School
34. Oak Ridge High School
35. Kellenberg Memorial
36. Jesuit High School
37. Fort Ann Central School
38. Bromfield School
39. Blue Valley North HS
40. Hempfield High School
41. Madison Central High School
42. Harrison B
43. Ithaca HS
44. Irvington HS - Team B
45. Eureka High School
46. Hastings High School Team B
47. Moorestown High School
48. Alief Hastings High School
49. Plano East Senior High School
50. Fort Worth Country Day School
51. Auburn High School - Team Black
52. Clark High School
53. Latin School of Chicago
54. Penn Manor High School
55. El Paso High School
56. Kinkaid High School
57. St. Marys High School
58. Hobart High School
59. Apollo High School
60. Pingry - A Team
61. Bellaire High School - Team B
62. Tatnall School
63. Academy of the Sacred Heart Grand Coteau
64. St. Marys Memorial High School
65. Ridgeland High School
66. Osbourn High School
67. Lamar High School
68. St. Joseph's High School
69. Rye Country Day School
70. Kremlin-Hillsdale High School
71. Klein Forest High School
72. Rye Neck High School
73. Western Wayne High School
74. Newport HS
75. St. John's Preparatory School
76. Penn High School
77. High Technology - Team B
78. Brownsburg High School
79. Sterling High School
80. Plano West Senior High School
81. East High School - JV
82. James M. Bennett HS
83. Charles Page High School
84. Hamilton SE High School
85. Jackson Prep
86. Elida High School
87. New London-Spicer High School
88. Boone High School
89. McCutcheon High School
90. Delaware Valley High School
91. Bishop Garrigan High School
92. George Wythe High School
93. Irmo B
94. Mauldin High School
95. Alief Taylor High School
96. Monrovia High School
97. Thomas Jefferson High School
98. Queensbury High School
99. Smithtown High School
100. Liberty High School
101. Edwards County High School
102. Drummond High School
103. Gulfport High School
104. Weehawken High School
105. Wilson High School
106. St. Croix Country Day School
107. Community School of Naples
108. Pingry - B Team
109. Wallenpaupack Area High School
110. Socorro High School
111. Del Norte High
112. Buras High School

Links

2004 National Academic Championship

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Tournament Events

Championship-Deciding Protest

Questions

Field

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