On Saturday, April 27, Weston High School joined 142 of the top quiz bowl teams from small public high schools at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare Chicago for the 2024 Small School National Championship Tournament to determine who was the best.

Quiz bowl is a competitive, academic, interscholastic activity for teams of four students.  Quiz bowl teams use buzzers to answer questions about science, math, history, literature, mythology, geography, social science, current events, sports, and popular culture.  The matches feature a blend of individual competition and team collaboration, since no individual player is likely to be an expert in all subject areas.  Participation in quiz bowl both reinforces lessons from the classroom and encourages players to develop new intellectual interests.

The team, in the Traditional Public Schools Division, was captained by Finley Campbell, who was joined by Adam Balbale, Lachlan Campbell, and Ben Rosenfeld.  The team was coached by Alison Langsdorf, who was assisted by Colin Campbell.

Weston was one of two Massachusetts teams competing at the national championship.

The Wildcats began the preliminary rounds with a ten-game winning streak, in which they defeated Riverside from Oakland, Iowa; Skyline from Urbana, Missouri; Happy Valley from Elizabethton, Tennessee; Homer-Center from Homer City, Pennsylvania; Evansville B from Wisconsin; Casey County from Liberty, Kentucky; Salem from Ohio; White Cloud from Michigan; Butler from Missouri; and New Berlin from Illinois.  They finished the preliminary rounds with a 10-0 record, which qualified them for the playoffs.

Weston spent three playoff games on the brink of elimination.  They defeated Cooperstown from New York and Centralia from Missouri before falling to Hallsville from Missouri, ending their shot at the overall title.

Finley Campbell was honored as an All-Star for correctly answering 92 tossup questions — 16 of them for “power,” that is, so early as to earn extra points — in the preliminary rounds.

Weston High School finished in fifth place in the Traditional Public Schools Division.  

The Traditional Public Schools Division champion was Hastings High School, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.  The Open Division champion was the A team from St. Mark’s School of Texas, Dallas, Texas.  

The 2024 Small School National Championship Tournament (Traditional Public Schools Division)’s field featured 88 teams from 24 states.

If you’d like to learn more about Quiz Bown, please contact Alison Langsdorf, Coach, langsdorfa@weston.org

Go ‘cats!

ABOUT NAQT
National Academic Quiz Tournaments, founded in 1996, organizes the premier middle school, high school, and college quiz bowl championships in North America.  In addition to its national championships, NAQT provides questions to invitational tournaments, league championships, and television shows throughout the year.  NAQT operates out of the Twin Cities and Kansas City, but its members mentor coaches, host tournaments, volunteer their services, and share their expertise across the United States.