LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The University of Louisville’s top Quiz Bowl team is putting up numbers that would impress Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek.The squad rolled to a 51-13 record during the season. And, on the strength of its Division I sectional title earned last month at the University of Kentucky, the team qualified for the National Academic Quiz Tournaments Intercollegiate Championship March 28-29 in Chicago.
“This is the first time we’ve ever qualified” at the Division I level, said Matt Church, the coach and sponsor of the Quiz Bowl team since 2009. “This is the best team I’ve had.”
Team members and their majors are: Nick Hammond (chemical engineering), Austin Brownlow (electrical and computer engineering), Lindsey Hastings (biology) and Ramapriya Rangaraju (computer engineering and computer science). All are seniors and Louisville natives.
At the championship event, the team will compete against 31 other top teams from the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Winning teams receive trophies and their members and coaches get individual awards.
UofL’s Quiz Bowl club, which is open to undergraduate and graduate students, practices for several hours each week and fields several teams that travel to competitions on the weekends. The club currently has about 20 members.
Quiz Bowl tournaments follow a format similar to standard quick-recall competitions and involve questions covering a range of academic disciplines and subjects.
Hammond, who is president of UofL’s Quiz Bowl club, said most of the members have been active in quick-recall events since their days in elementary school.
“We take it pretty seriously,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun when you get into it.”
For more information, call Matt Church at 502-852-1326.