The UofL Quiz Bowl team finished the 2015-16 season ranked 11th in the Quizbowl Resource Center’s final national postseason poll. The ranking is the highest ever for a UofL team, seven spots better than its previous best finish and several places ahead of academic heavyweights Harvard University and Northwestern University. UofL was the top ranked ACC school, finishing a full 11 spots higher than conference counterpart Georgia Tech.
“We started out the season ranked 19th and to finish up the season with 11th place is amazing,” quiz bowl faculty advisor Matt Church said. “The team had great chemistry and once they learned how to play together, they were beating teams we’ve never beaten before, such as Brown, Duke, Virginia and the famed Oxford University from Great Britain. Maryland – the team that finished ranked fourth – (we) beat them twice. It was a season of firsts.”
The team of Nick Conder, Kurtis Droge, Ramapriya Rangaraju, and Megan Seldon ended the season with a strong finishing kick, including top 15 placements at both the NAQT Intercollegiate Championship Tournament (14th) and ACF National Championship (10th). Droge, who was not included in any preseason rankings, was voted the 11th best player in the country and named to the Division I All Star Team.
Church indicated that 2017’s squad could be even better, given that Conder, Droge and Rangaraju are all returning to the team.
“With most of the team coming back next year, we’re shooting for a top 10, possibly top 8 finish,” Church said.
According to Church, the ultimate goal is to send two, possibly three UofL teams to the two national championship tournaments and encourages any student interested in participating to contact him via email.
