NAQT Illinois State Championship

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The NAQT Illinois State Tournament is one of three state championships held in Illinois. The NAQT Illinois State Tournament is the newest of the Illinois quiz bowl state championship tournaments compared to the older IHSA and Masonic formats of Illinois Scholastic Bowl. Teams competing in all three tournaments refer to this as the "Triple Crown." Compared to the IHSA or Masonic, teams qualify for NAQT State through top performances in tournaments using NAQT sets. For many schools this may be through their athletic conference, league, or IHSSBCA tournaments like IHSSBCA Kickoff or IHSSBCA Turnabout.

History

Northwestern began hosting an annual high school NAQT tournament in 1999, which was the first tournament to consistently use NAQT questions in Illinois. While the tournament started drawing as many as 41 teams in 2001 (with teams coming from Michigan, Missouri, Iowa, and Wisconsin), the tournament went through declining organization and interest. It stopped using NAQT questions circa 2009 and stopped occurring around 2014. Northwestern no longer hosts a high school tournament, though they have hosted a middle school tournament with NAQT questions annually since about 2010.

Prior to 2005 few Illinois teams attended NAQT tournaments outside of Illinois. Perhaps, most notoriously, Loyola Academy attended and won the Iowa State Championship in 2004, a year in which it did not even advance from its own regional in the IHSA State Series. People such as David Riley, Linda Greene, and David Reinstein began pushing for more tournaments to be run on good questions like NAQT, which led to a gradual increase in the number of tournaments using the questions, and the number of teams coming out to the NAQT State Tournament.

While Illinois quizbowl questions had been gradually improving during the early 2000s, it was not until the 2004-05 season that Illinois would get its own regular state championship and qualifier for the HSNCT. This came largely at the request of Loyola Academy coach David Riley. In the years that followed, question quality saw a gradual improvement. Local tournament and match formats are now largely in line with national standards.

William and Janet Egan Memorial Trophy

Starting in 2013, the tournament started recognizing a small school champion.

Starting in 2015, the winner of the tournament receives the William and Janet Egan Memorial Trophy, a perpetual trophy which the winner keeps only so long as they continue winning the tournament. The trophy was donated by the family of William and Janet Egan, and largely consists of a crystal bowl that was William's retirement gift. Even though the trophy was not awarded until 2015, it records the names of the tournament champions dating to the inception of the tournament in 2005. The IHSSBCA officially oversees the trophy and its awarding.

The tournament was not held in 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2022, the tournament has been hosted by Centennial High School in Champaign, marking the first time since 2014 that the tournament was not hosted by the University of Illinois.

The 2025 tournament was the first to feature a seperate "Small Schools Division" whereas in previous tournaments all schools competed in one division with the highest finishing "small school" receiving honors regardless of their overall record at the end of the day.

Results

DATE CHAMPION RUNNER-UP 3rd PLACE SMALL SCHOOL TOP SCORER (PP20TH) ATTENDANCE HOST STATS
2/2005 Stevenson Wheaton North New Trier 9 Loyola
2/2006 Stevenson New Trier Loyola 12 Loyola
3/2007 New Trier Maine South Carbondale Nick Matchen (56.89) 8 Loyola [1]
2/2008 Auburn Loyola Carbondale Ben Cohen (74.87) 9 UIUC [2]
3/2009 Auburn Carbondale New Trier Ben Cohen (89.09) 12 Fenton [3]
3/2010 Auburn Carbondale OPRF Andrew Deveau (104.5) 18 Fenton [4]
2/2011 Stevenson Auburn Loyola Ben Carberry (133.63) 17 Fenton [5]
2/2012 Auburn IMSA A Carbondale1 Ben Chametzky (165.22) 24 Fenton [6]
2/2013 IMSA Auburn Belvidere North Peoria Christian Dylan Minarik (148.15) 28 Bloomington [7]
2/2014 IMSA A Stevenson Bloomington A Litchfield Jackson Myers (113.39) 40 UIUC [8]
2/2015 Auburn Hinsdale Central A IMSA A Macomb A Adam Fine (123.76) 36 UIUC [9]
2/2016 Auburn Hinsdale Central A IMSA A Macomb A Jakob Myers (149.04) 40 UIUC [10]
2/11/2017 Stevenson A Barrington Naperville North Southwestern A Jakob Myers (156.79) 30 UIUC [11]
2/10/2018 Urbana Uni High A2 Auburn Fremd A Urbana Uni High A Ethan Strombeck (102.31) 30 UIUC [12]
2/23/2019 Auburn Stevenson A Urbana Uni High A Urbana Uni High A Ethan Strombeck (118.57) 30 UIUC [13]
2/29/2020 Urbana Uni High A Stevenson A Barrington A Urbana Uni High A Ben Fry (105.45) 32 UIUC [14]
20213
2/26/2022 Buffalo Grove Barrington A Stevenson Urbana Uni High Rohan Ganeshan (131.36) 20 Centennial [15]
2/25/2023 Buffalo Grove Barrington A Rockford Auburn Urbana Uni High Rohan Ganeshan (152.14) 30 Centennial [16]
2/24/2024 Buffalo Grove Barrington A Fremd A Urbana Uni High Rohan Ganeshan (154.0) 32 Centennial [17]
3/01/2025 Fremd Stevenson Hinsdale Central Metro-East Lutheran Ryan Dai, Carbondale (80) 36 Centennial

Notes

  1. Ben Chametzky played solo in 2012.
  2. With only around 320 students in regular attendance, University of Illinois Lab became the smallest known school to win any open or large division state championship (there may have been smaller schools that won a Masonic State Title in the early years before it was a true state-wide contest).
  3. Tournament cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic.

See Also

High School Quizbowl in Illinois

Organizations
State Tournaments
Awards & Honors
Major Tournaments
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