The 2018 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) State Championship Tournaments will end the thirty-second State Championship Series conducted in Scholastic Bowl by the IHSA. It will be the twenty-seventh season in which there were separate State Championship Tournaments held for small schools (Class A) and large schools (Class AA). For the twenty-second year, both tournaments were held at the Peoria Civic Center. The tournaments will be held on a Friday, March 16.
This state series was the first to be written under the guidance of new head question editor Brad Fischer.
The tournament was hosted by Elmwood (responsible for providing scorekeepers and timers, as well as arranging for set up at the facility). Equipment was furnished by Buzzersystems.com.
Advancement
Teams were assigned to one of eight sectionals within each class. Coaches then seeded the top 8 teams in their sectional. The IHSA then assigned the seeded teams to one of four regionals (1 with 8, 2 with 7, etc), with the remainder of the teams assigned to a regional geographically. The winners of the regionals would advance to their respective sectional tournaments, where they would play a three match round robin to determine a winner. The determination of the geographic boundaries of the Sectional was arbitrarily decided by the IHSA Office. Regional tournaments were held on Monday March 5, and Sectional tournaments were held on Saturday March 10.
Tournament Format
Each round was comprised of 24 toss-ups and accompanying bonus questions.
In the State Championship Tournament, teams were randomly assigned to pools of four, and played a three match round robin. The winners of each pool advanced to the Championship Match, and the runners-up in each pool advanced to play for third place. Ties were broken by head-to-head results or total points scored among tied teams (in the event of a three-way tie).
The top four teams earned trophies and medals for team members, coaches, principals, and activities directors.
CLASS A
POOL #1
| Round |
Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| 1 |
Byron |
260 |
Riverdale |
130
|
|
Maroa-Forsyth |
450 |
Robinson |
120
|
| 2 |
Robinson |
280 |
Riverdale |
160
|
|
Byron |
340 |
Maroa-Forsyth |
190
|
| 3 |
Maroa-Forsyth |
350 |
Riverdale |
90
|
|
Byron |
290 |
Robinson |
220
|
POOL #2
| Round |
Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| 1 |
Beacon Academy |
390 |
Johnston City |
220
|
|
Williamsville |
420 |
Southwestern |
290
|
| 2 |
Southwestern |
370 |
Beacon Academy |
290
|
|
Williamsville |
590 |
Johnston City |
140
|
| 3 |
Williamsville |
420 |
Beacon Academy |
150
|
|
Southwestern |
430 |
Johnston City |
140
|
Third Place
| Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| Southwestern |
420 |
Maroa-Forsyth |
210
|
Finals
| Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| Williamsville |
500 |
Byron |
120
|
CLASS AA
POOL #1
| Round |
Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| 1 |
Auburn |
520 |
Sandburg |
330
|
|
Latin |
520 |
Mater Dei |
190
|
| 2 |
Auburn |
620 |
Mater Dei |
130
|
|
Sandburg |
410 |
Latin |
230
|
| 3 |
Auburn |
570 |
Latin |
230
|
|
Sandburg |
500 |
Mater Dei |
180
|
POOL #2
| Round |
Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| 1 |
Stevenson |
700 |
Macomb |
100
|
|
IMSA |
530 |
UIUC Lab |
370
|
| 2 |
Stevenson |
460 |
IMSA |
340
|
|
UIUC Lab |
550 |
Macomb |
280
|
| 3 |
Stevenson |
570 |
UIUC Lab |
270
|
|
IMSA |
610 |
Macomb |
200
|
Third Place
| Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| IMSA |
600 |
Sandburg |
180
|
Finals
| Winning Team |
Score |
Losing Team |
Score
|
| Stevenson |
430 |
Auburn |
390
|
Notes
- Class A featured two schools from the same athletic conference making the top-4, Williamsville & Maroa-Forsyth of the (Sangamo Conference)
- The 2018 State Series was the first to feature questions edited by Brad Fischer. The result was record scoring at the regional and sectional levels.
- Auburn continued its streak of consecutive top-4 finishes to 17 straight years, though this was the first without long-time coach Linda Greene.
- Stevenson became the fourth team to place in the top 4 in at least 10 IHSA tournaments.
- Sandburg became the first Class AA team from the South Suburbs of Chicago to place in the state tournament.