CAL CLASSIC V Results and Summary

By Ross Ritterman, Praetor: California Classic V

Congratulations to Charles Wright Academy of Washington State!

BERKELEY, CA -

Saturday, 15 April 2000, Dwinelle Hall

The University of California, Berkeley shocked the Quiz-Bowl World, or at least itself, when it received confirmation not the night before that it would be hosting 21 teams for its 5th Annual California Classic High School tournament. Not only was it remarkable that we received confirmation from 21 teams, but all 21 teams showed up, at least equaling the largest High School tournament held in the West Coast United States.

The Tournament began between 9:30am and 10am in Dwinelle Hall at the University of California, Berkeley Campus and was set for 10 rounds. Teams were split into Brackets X, Y and Z and played a full round-robin within. After the round-robin teams were re-bracketed and there were additional round robins played in several tiers, with the best 4 teams in the top bracket: Charles Wright Academy, a High School in Washington State that, after having won a state championship in somewhat similar style academic competition migrated down for the tournament. Mission San Jose Prep, the perennial Northern California favorite who has won the CAL Classic the past few years rather handily. The Branson School, coached by trivia guru Howard Rachelson, and rounding out the top bracket Granada High who finished its initial round-robin with a rather high points per game total.

Thus the stage was set for what should be a pretty competitive upper-echelon. During the round-robin, Mission San Jose lost to Branson which cleared a path for undefeated Charles Wright. If Charles Wright (8-0) were to lose in the final math of the Round-Robin to Mission (7-1) (whose record was still better than Branson's) then it would force a finals match between the two. The final never happened as Charles Wright won all of its bracket matches, going a perfect 9-0 and taking the tournament.

We would like to extend Wright Academy congratulations for its fine job and additionally for travelling several hundred miles to compete. We also applaud Mission San Jose's consistently strong effort, and dedication to attending CAL sponsored events. Finally congratulations to all who made the effort to come to our campus on a Saturday to partake. Everyonel made a great effort. Our tourament also saw many first year competitors. Standing out the most was Lowell High School in San Francisco, supported by teacher and Cal Alum Harlan Edelman, who sent 6 teams to our competition after having virtually no idea what it was getting itself into. Special thanks goes out to them.

Leading all scorers with an impressive 72 toss-ups with an average of 8 per game was Simon Porzak of Marin Academy. Other notables include Derek Wilarat (Bentley C), Stephanie Wang (Mission SJ), Rishi Trivedi (American B), Marty Schwartz (Branson), Eorl Carlson (Riordan), Nick Hagens (Wright), and Seth Mickenberg (Bentley B). Congratulations to them and all the individuals, especially those coming off of their Spring Breaks. Thanks for coming.

Thanks again to all who came, we hope you had as fun a time as we did. We invite all who came back again next year for CAL Classic VI. If you are reading this and your high school did not attend CAL Classic and think you would like to next year please send either myself or Co-Praetor Gaius Stern an e-mail and we'll be happy to give you the details.

Ross Ritterman, Praetor: CAL Classic V

Click HERE for the Final team rankngs

Click HERE for the Final Individual rankings

Send All Comments to rkeeper@uclink4.berkeley.edu

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