WUHSAC
WUHSAC, or the Washington University High School Academic Competition, is Washington University's annual high school quiz bowl competition that generally takes place in January or February. Since 2022, the tournament has been a mirror of the DART set; from 2013 to 2021, it used Yale's housewritten BHSAT questions. In previous years, questions were written by the WUSTL team. Teams participating can qualify for the PACE NSC.
Characteristics
WUHSAC is one of the flagship tournaments of the Missouri high school quiz bowl circuit, usually drawing around 30 teams. WUHSAC is also noteworthy as one of the few Missouri tournaments which draws a large number of out of state teams, recently from places like Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee and Florida.
WUHSAC also used the Gordon Arsenoff's WUStL Updates Statistics Live! (WUStL!) online scorekeeping system, which was used for other WUSTL tournaments from the 2012 WUHSAC to the 2019 WUHSAC.
Unusually, WUHSAC uses 20-point powers in a simulacrum of the NSC. All other aspects are the same as in standard quizbowl; there are 5-point negs and no bouncebacks on bonuses.
History
Prior to 2013, WUHSAC was intended to be a slightly harder than average house-written tournament, similar to Harvard's HFT. Beginning with the 2008 iteration, the set drew criticism from players such as Charlie Dees due to poor difficulty control, the use of biographical clues, and generally poor writing quality. This criticism eventually led to the adoption of Yale's Bulldog High School Academic Tournament set in 2013, which was well-received.
Recent tournament directors have included Sean Phillips and Charles Hang. Jacob O'Rourke has directed the tournament since WUHSAC XXI.
External Links
Criticism of the 2008 iteration
Results
| Year | Champion | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | New Madrid County Central | Unknown |
| January 2000 | Bartlett | Unknown |
| December 2000 | Bartlett | Lafayette |
| 2002 | Detroit Catholic Central | Walton |
| 2003 | Detroit Catholic Central | St. Andrew's |
| 2004 | New Trier | Detroit Country Day |
| 2005 | Dunbar A | Dunbar B |
| 2006 | Dunbar | Madisonville North Hopkins |
| 2007 | North Kansas City | New Trier |
| 2008 | North Kansas City | Rockford Auburn |
| 2009 | Rockford Auburn | Carbondale |
| 2010 | Chatham Glenwood | Parkway Central |
| 2011 | Carbondale | Northmont |
| 2012 | Ladue A | Clayton A |
| 2013 | Ladue A | Detroit Catholic Central |
| 2014 | Ladue A | Northmont |
| 2015 | Hallsville A | Savannah |
| 2016 | Hannibal A | Woodford County |
| 2017 | MICDS | Ladue A |
| 2018 | Detroit Catholic Central | Ladue A |
| 2019 | Ladue A | St. Joseph Central A |
| 2020 | Ladue A | St. Joseph Central A |
| 2021 | Ladue A | Kinkaid |
| 2022 | Clayton A | College Heights Christian |
| 2023 | Fair Grove | Parkway West A |
| 2024 | Mexico | College Heights Christian |