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We WON the Division II championship at this tournment! Entering three teams, one in Division I and two in Division II for 1st or 2nd-year players, we had a very successful day. In Division I, Neal Schuster, Kevin Clair, Bryan Gast, and Courtney Colby finished a strong third behind Illinois and South Carolina -- playing the latter team three times, beating them once but losing two games by a total of 15 points. In Division II, in a ten-team field our two entries finished the round robin with 7-1 and 6-2 records, but met different fates thereafter. The team of Kyle Willett, Sarah Horowitz, Keith Purrington, Simone Kahmeyer, and Charlotte Christensen received the #1 ranking for ladder play, and successfully defended their position twice versus a strong Illinois team, finishing 9-1 for the day. The team of Mike Church, Emily Young, Mike Austin, Jack Rousseau, and Sarah Vigeland--the latter three making their Carleton intercollegiate debuts--dropped during ladder play to fifth, which though disappointing at that point, didn't change the day from being a generally successful one for a team with three rookies. Sarah had the pleasure of playing opposite her twin sister on the Grinnell team. The champion team of Kyle, Sarah, Keith, Simone, and Charlotte not only won their tournament, but set new sartorial standards while doing so. They played all day long in formal wear--tuxes or suits for the men and evening gowns for the women--and were as stunning visually as they were dominent competitively. Neal and Kyle each won awards for being 5th in individual scoring in Divisions I and II, respectively.
A short report by Courtney: Despite arriving late to the tournament on Friday night (only to learn of our first round bye), Carleton finished third, with 96 points, in a field of six teams behind the University of Illinois and the University of Michigan. The first quad team of Bryan, Mike Olson, Neal and Kyle had a record of 3-2. The second quad team of Kevin, Courtney, Sarah Horowitz and Keith lost only to Illinois, leaving them with a record of 4-1. Kevin was first singles, finishing with a record of 2-3. Neal on second singles had a record of 3-2. Bryan and Keith did an excellent job in first doubles finishing with a record of 4-1. On second doubles Courtney and Mike went 2-3. And dominating third doubles were Sarah and Kyle, finishing undefeated with a record of 5-0. Of course, no tournament would be complete without the ensuing hijinks. After Friday's portion of the tournament the team enjoyed a nice dinner at a fine Perkins-ish style diner called Simon's. During the course of the meal Bryan agreed that in return for the cost of his meal, he would drink three small containers of pancake syrup in less than 30 seconds. To the horror of all present, he completed the feat and was awarded the $9. The drive home provided even more antics as the Ford Focus driven by Neal continued to launch projectiles in the form of Nacho Cheese CornNuts at the Ford Contour manned by Courtney and Kevin. However, the Contour team rallied and managed to hit the Focus with several Pizza flavored Combos.
Three Carleton teams competed in this event, making up almost half of the seven-team field. Despite a traumatic experience with one of the vans losing a tire on the way, we did well. In Division I, Neal, Bryan, Courtney, Mike O. and Kevin placed third, with an 8-4 record. The team of Kyle, Sarah H., Keith, and Simone won the Division II title by going undefeated in DII play but ended up with an overall 6-6 record after losing to all the DI teams. The C team of Mike A., Sarah V., Jack, and Andy Nichols, making his intercollegiate tournament debut, went 2-10 beating an Iowa State team twice. Book prizes were also awarded for individual scoring to Kyle (1st), Sarah H. (3rd) and Keith (5th) in DII, and to Neal (5th) in DI. Of course, no trip to Ames would be complete without a visit to Little Taipei, so we ate dinner there, the first visit for Mike O., despite his many years of quizbowling. Special thanks to the Iowa State tournament directors/moderators for being helpful and understanding about the van and our resulting lateness.
We sent 13 players to the 16th running of the Elvis. Carleton A (Ezra Lyon, Keith, Kevin, and Neal) finished tied for fourth place with a 10-4 record. Carleton B (Bryan, Courtney, Kyle, Mike Olson) finished 6-6, and C (Jack, Joseph Graly, Mike Austin, Sarah Vigeland, and Simone) went 3-9. One highlight for Carleton C, however, was its upset defeat of Carleton B. Kevin's snood, or whatever that is, won the "best hat" contest.
Despite the crazy logistics of getting eleven people to the tournament in three different cars, each leaving at a different time, we all got there and had a successful tournament. As we had hoped, Carleton's performance at sectionals earned us invitations to the NAQT ICT for two teams, one in each division. In Division I our quartet of Neal, Kevin, Keith, and Ezra placed third overall behind Illinois and Michigan State, with a record of 10-4. Because impressive Michigan State was also an all-undergraduate team, Carleton failed to win the Midwest undergraduate title for the first time in several years, but the overall performance did earn an invitation to nationals in Los Angeles. In Division II our full team of Mike Olson, Kyle, Sarah, and Courtney went 10-3 to finished second behind an undefeated Chicago team and earn a D2 invitation to the ICT. And playing valiantly as only a two-person team, Mike Austin and Simone went a respectable 4-9 in Division II, placing eighth. The two Mikes, Olson and Austin, earned spots on the hypothetical D2 All Star team, finishing 2nd and 4th in individual scoring, respectively, and picking up book prizes as a result. Mike O. led Division II in power tossups, with 9. We enjoyed both the tournament and the accompanying socializing with former Carleton players Emily Pike and Ted Salk, who came to the event as moderators, and who joined us for Friday night question playing and for a couple of good dinners Friday and Saturday.
Heavy snow made timely arrival difficult for many teams and moderators for the fifth annual CUT tournament, but all did make it safely and we started only about 15 minutes later than planned. Carleton entered five and a half teams in the field of 22 at our own tournament, and after two years of having the bad manners to win first place at something we were hosting, this year we stayed clear of all the trophy positions. Nonetheless, we did well, placing all 5.5 teams in the top 13. The "half" team was "The Lyon Kings," consisting of Carleton's Ezra Lyon playing with his brother Avram, from Grinnell -- twice with older brother Gabe Lyon moderating, and the rest of the family in the audience watching, so that was quite the family affair. They went 6-6 overall, and finished 11th. Carleton's top finisher for this one was Carleton Sleipnir (Courtney, Mike Olson), who went 8-3-1 to place 5th. Our other teams were 7th-place Carleton Mjollnir (Mike Austin, Jack, Sarah Vigeland, Joseph), 7-5; 9th-place Carleton Draupnir (Bryan, Neal), 7-5; 10th-place Carleton Gungnir (Simone, Keith), 7-5; and 13th-place Carleton Skidbladnir (Sarah Horowitz, Kyle - with Kevin, who was moderating before, replacing Kyle for the playoffs after Kyle had to catch a bus), 5-7. Collectively, the five fully-Carleton teams were 32-17-1 in the round robins (Mary-Kate and Ashley Divisions), and then 2-8 in the two-round playoffs -- with our top three teams 0-6.
Nine of us had a terrific time missing a Minnesota spring snowstorm while in Southern California. The competition was rough in this stellar field, though, and Carleton's Div. 1 entry of Kevin, Ezra, Neal, and Bryan wound up in 23rd place overall (8th among undergrad-only teams), winning only 5 of 15 games played. Our Div. 2 team of Kyle, Mike Olson, Mike Austin, and Sarah Horowitz placed highly -- 9th out of 32 teams -- but was frustrated by "what might have beens," after losing two matches by 10 points--one to the eventual champions from Berkeley--and another by 5 enroute to an overall record of 8-5. Kyle, however, won a prize as a member of the D2 allstar team for his individual scoring. Eric spent the tournament moderating, of course, and was selected to read the undergraduate title championship game. On Sunday we had a free day in L.A., and sent one group to the impressive Getty museum while another hung out with frisbees on Santa Monica beach. Part of our group for this was team alumnus Shane Ewert, who was at the tournament captaining the British team from Goodenough College. Then we all (thanks to driving by ex-Minnesota and Wisconsin player Jer Smith) reunited in Santa Monica, played touch football on the beach (Eric both throwing and running for touchdowns in his team's victory, also aided by Neal's two interceptions), and had delicious meals, one group Thai the other Italian. Then a marathon session of playing more questions back at the hotel until a couple of hours before having to get up again for an early morning Monday flight. Nice time! By chance, in the airport on the way out we ran into another team alumnus, Dan Snyder '00.
Three student teams, plus Eric playing solo, attended this event using questions from Princeton's tournament of the same weekend. Starting with a full round robin among nine teams, Eric went 7-1, Carleton Cape Colony (Neal, Bryan, and Mike O.) 6-2, Carleton Orange Free State (Keith, Mike A., Jack, Simone) 4-4, and Carleton Transvaal (Ezra, Kevin, Sarah V.) 3-5. An Iowa State house team was undefeated--but, it had been announced in advance, would not be going on to the eight-team playoffs, and so Eric, Cape Colony, and Orange Free State were three of the four teams (with Iowa) in an "upper-bracket" of playoff teams to determine the first four official final positions. In playoffs Eric got three more wins, and Cape Colony two more, to come away with the tournament's two trophies. Orange Free State dropped all three playoff games to finish fourth, while Transvaal went 2-1 in the lower bracket to place 5th. Eric then played the ISU house team in a rematch, losing to them a second time, by 20 points. Thus, though Eric may be listed as the tournament champion, he considers himself truly to have finished second behind the host Iowa State team that was undefeated on the day but excluded from the playoffs. Anyway, a fun day full of questions, matches, frisbee during down time, and Chinese food for lunch. A special treat was Mike Olson's parents showing up unexpectedly (to us) to watch, as they were enroute to Minnesota. For Bryan and Mike O., the strong second-place (or third, depending on how you look at it) placement was a fine way to go out, for their last intercollegiate tournaments with Carleton. Naturally, since he played solo, Eric led the tournament in scoring, with Ezra, Neal, Bryan and Keith also earning spots in the top nine individual scorers.
Carleton Apollonian (Ezra, Jack, Sarah V., Mike A.) went 8-4 to finish in a three-way tie for second in the ten-team field, behind an undefeated Michigan squad. On points tiebreaks, they were fourth, but as standard quizbowl practice is not to break ties artificially unless necessary, we'll be happy recording it as a tie for second. Carleton Dionysian (Kyle, Sarah H., Keith, Simone) went 7-4 to place fifth. Ezra had a particularly impressive tournament, earning a spot among the top four individual scorers with a 61.1 ppg. average through the nine-game round robin. Kyle and Sarah H. were also in the tournament top ten, and Sarah had the tournament's best tossup to neg. ratio--perfect--with 29 tossups and 0 negs.
