Junior NAC 2009 Results

[the return of AHAN]

Longfellow MS of Falls Church, Virginia wins the 2009 Junior apalooza. Given their solid performances in the KMO's, it's probably safe to say Longfellow is a legitimate national champion. So congratulations to Coach Huang and his crew.
Now, about those questions...

The questions are geared to grades 6-9. The four-quarter format of Junior Nationals mirrors that of high school Nationals except; namely a "Warm-Up" round of relatively easy tossup questions, a "Bonus" round featuring pyramid-style tossups leading to four-part bonus opportunities, a category-oriented lightning round known as "60 Seconds," and a "Stump the Experts" round of challenging high school-level tossups. Pyramid-style tossups generally feature three or more sentences, starting with less well-known information, moving on to moderate difficulty and ending with well-known facts.

Is this new?

But Hawken beat them 10-5 on the CABINET bonus.

Cabinets? Attending this with my Barrington team would be bad for my health, wouldn't it?

An early buzz by Hawken on the next tossup, with incorrect answer "rodents," gave Longfellow a chance to listen to a whole paragraph leading to the answer of "rats" after the final clue "species include the Black and the Norway."

Ummm... prompt? Anyone?

answering an auto mechanics question about wheel alignment;

BWAAHAHAHA! Who dares to mock Illinois scholastic bowl for its industrial arts distro now?!??!?!?

Longfellow got this Driver's Ed question: "Researchers have concluded that even with air bags and wearing a seat belt, a car's driver is three times more likely to die in a crash when what other passenger is not wearing a seat belt?" (Ans. Backseat passenger directly behind the driver)

(see above; replace 'industrial arts' with 'drivers ed')

Longfellow brought their score to within 5 points of the lead after this quirky question: "Many citizens of which Iowa city naturally want to change their airport's designation from SUX?" (Ans. Sioux City)

Airport abbreviations are canon now?

Finally, they finished this line from the William Goldman novel Princess Bride: "My name is Inigo Montoya. ..." (Ans. You killed my father. Prepare to die.)

After all, what's the deciding question of a national championship match without some sort of easily fraudable Princess Bride reference?

Anyway, I don't know how likely their attendance will be but I intend to invite every team mentioned to the Barrington Tournament's 2010 edition.

[Down and out in Quintana Roo]

Longfellow brought their score to within 5 points of the lead after this quirky question: "Many citizens of which Iowa city naturally want to change their airport's designation from SUX?" (Ans. Sioux City)

Airport abbreviations are canon now?

I remember in 7th or 8th grade when i played "quizbowl" in middle school, we had an entire lightning round category of airport abbreviations. My brother, already a big Flight Simulator fan and future aerospace engineer, had talked to me so much about the aircraft industry that i knew most big cities' designations. Not sure if we swept it.

[Kouign Amann]

Longfellow MS of Falls Church, Virginia wins the 2009 Junior apalooza. Given their solid performances in the KMO's, it's probably safe to say Longfellow is a legitimate national champion. So congratulations to Coach Huang and his crew.

YAY LONGFELLOW!!!
Sucks you had to go through that, but yeah, FCPS represent.

[The King's Flight to the Scots]

Longfellow MS of Falls Church, Virginia wins the 2009 Junior apalooza. Given their solid performances in the KMO's, it's probably safe to say Longfellow is a legitimate national champion. So congratulations to Coach Huang and his crew.

YAY LONGFELLOW!!!
Sucks you had to go through that, but yeah, FCPS represent.

You never had to go there.

EDIT: Coach Huang? As in Mr. Huang, the math teacher? Yeah, he's one of the few great teachers at that school: it's no surprise they're winning.

[cvdwightw]

answering an auto mechanics question about wheel alignment;

BWAAHAHAHA! Who dares to mock Illinois scholastic bowl for its industrial arts distro now?!??!?!?

No, no, no, you missed it.

Township netted 40 on COMMON TOOLS.

[Kouign Amann]

is a common tool.....

[Sir Thopas]

is a common tool.....

Awesome.

Also, CABINET was probably about the executive branch, not furniture. At least, I hope so.

[Whiter Hydra]

Also, CABINET was probably about the executive branch, not furniture. At least, I hope so.

Member of the cabinet, type of cabinet, both, or neither:

[scquizbowl]

Me too. I also had an airport code worksheet, when I was in 9th grade at a Cedar Shoals tournament, I believe. We aced that, and we won our first tournament that way.

Some of those questions are so high level. What middle schooler has read Princess Bride? Also, Hawken chose the longest category in the history of the NAC: U.S. NATIONAL PARKS THAT UNESCO HAS IDENTIFIED AS A WORLD HERITAGE SITE.

Joe
James Island '10

[Sir Thopas]

Some of those questions are so high level. What middle schooler has read Princess Bride?

Erm. Yeah...

[The King's Flight to the Scots]

Some of those questions are so high level. What middle schooler has read Princess Bride?

It's a pretty famous quote, e.g.: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... igoMontoya

[#1 Mercury Adept]

But I would hazard a guess that most people know that from seeing the movie. I for one have never read the book, but I could quote you some lines that are probably in it.

[Down and out in Quintana Roo]

Inconceivable!

[Kouign Amann]

Inconceivable!

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

[the return of AHAN]

is a common tool.....

Awesome.

Also, CABINET was probably about the executive branch, not furniture. At least, I hope so.

Guy, I hope you're right. There's no other context provided in the statement. Is it bad that my first thoughts wandered to furniture? Would it surprise you if there was such a bonus?
Re: The Princess Bride question... The fact that it's a movie is why I referred to it as easily fraudable; I haven't read The Princess Bride, but could've answered that question.

[Kouign Amann]

Wait, hold on. Is this restricted to just middle school or can high schoolers play it? Because that kid in the first row on the right is Varun Kumar, classmate of mine at Haycock Elementary school and current freshman at TJ.

Edit: link

[Whiter Hydra]

Wait, hold on. Is this restricted to just middle school or can high schoolers play it? Because that kid in the first row on the right is Varun Kumar, classmate of mine at Haycock Elementary school and current freshman at TJ.

Edit: link

There can be up to two 9th graders on a team, as per the official rules.

[Kouign Amann]

Wait, hold on. Is this restricted to just middle school or can high schoolers play it? Because that kid in the first row on the right is Varun Kumar, classmate of mine at Haycock Elementary school and current freshman at TJ.

Edit: link

There can be up to two 9th graders on a team, as per the official rules.

Interesting... This thing keeps getting wackier and wackier.

[Golran]

If he's a current freshman at TJ, are they allowing people from mixed schools to compete?

[STPickrell]

If he's a current freshman at TJ, are they allowing people from mixed schools to compete?

Fairfax County Public Schools have middle schools with only grades 7 and 8.

If the guy went to Longfellow and it was cleared w/ Chip or in the rules, it would be less of a problem. It's the same idea as letting an 8th grader from your feeder middle school play on your HS team. But ... doing it in reverse might set off alarms ...

[the return of AHAN]

A team consists of players from one middle school or junior high school whom the school has declared eligible. To equalize the playing field between junior high teams and middle school teams, each middle school team is welcome to include up to two ninth graders from the high school into which that middle school feeds. A junior high team may play no more than two ninth graders at a given time. (Ninth graders are not eligible to compete at both Junior Nationals and Senior Nationals.)

This makes things really interesting. Not that we'll ever go, but it gets the wheels turning on how one could torture the rules. Let's say Daniel Wright JHS entered next year. They could ostensibly take the two best freshmen from Stevenson HS (I'd say, Saieesh Rao of Twin Groves MS will be in that conversation), even though they weren't necessarily students at Wright???? The rule never says anything about the 9th graders being alums of the school they're representing. Shoot, if you're a Catholic school in these parts I assume you could pick the 2 best freshmen from St. Viator AND Loyola.

EDIT: Whoa, check the # of posts!

[STPickrell]

A team consists of players from one middle school or junior high school whom the school has declared eligible. To equalize the playing field between junior high teams and middle school teams, each middle school team is welcome to include up to two ninth graders from the high school into which that middle school feeds. A junior high team may play no more than two ninth graders at a given time. (Ninth graders are not eligible to compete at both Junior Nationals and Senior Nationals.)

This makes things really interesting. Not that we'll ever go, but it gets the wheels turning on how one could torture the rules. Let's say Daniel Wright JHS entered next year. They could ostensibly take the two best freshmen from Stevenson HS (I'd say, Saieesh Rao of Twin Groves MS will be in that conversation), even though they weren't necessarily students at Wright???? The rule never says anything about the 9th graders being alums of the school they're representing. Shoot, if you're a Catholic school in these parts I assume you could pick the 2 best freshmen from St. Viator AND Loyola.

I think the rule needs to be amended so that the 9th grader(s) in question are actually alumni of the middle school competing. Otherwise, it looks fine.

[Stained Diviner]

It's bizarre. My team would have been a lot better this year if we had been able to use our two top students from last year.

[STPickrell]

It's bizarre. My team would have been a lot better this year if we had been able to use our two top students from last year.

Not really. Some middle schools are 6-8, others 7-8, and others 7-9.

If you had your two top alumni from last year, the only apples to apples comparison would be if other schools could bring in their alumni who are college freshmen.

I believe allowing only 9th grade alumni of that middle school should be done.

[jonah]

For what it's worth, Science Olympiad has a similar rule about ninth graders in its middle school division. I forget what the maximum number allowed is, but there is a cap. I was recruited to be on my junior high's team my freshman year in high school, and I remember noting that it didn't say anywhere that the ninth graders had to be alumni of the school they were competing for.

[Mechanical Beasts]

For what it's worth, Science Olympiad has a similar rule about ninth graders in its middle school division. I forget what the maximum number allowed is, but there is a cap. I was recruited to be on my junior high's team my freshman year in high school, and I remember noting that it didn't say anywhere that the ninth graders had to be alumni of the school they were competing for.

Five. Also, huh. It certainly used to assert that they had to be alums of the school they were competing for; I remember one of our eighth graders was considering going to a local public school for high school and my coach noted that we'd still be able to use her in competition since the rules referred to the school you graduated from, rather than a middle school affiliated with the high school you currently attend.

[DumbJaques]

This is a middle school tournament with driver's ed questions.

[First Chairman]

This is a middle school tournament with driver's ed questions.

I hope it's limited to questions on "seatbelts" or "speed limit"???

[cvdwightw]

But I would hazard a guess that most people know that from seeing the movie. I for one have never read the book, but I could quote you some lines that are probably in it.

Having picked up this book as a prize at some quizbowl tournament or other, I can confirm that this quote does actually appear, six times, on pages 308 and 309 of my copy. Only once out of the six times is the punctuation used by actually used, and that is the last time, with the whole quote in capital letters.

Therefore, allegations that this was not actually written from the book are inconclusive, at best. Allegations that this was a terrible idea to decide a national tournament on are valid.

This is a middle school tournament with driver's ed questions.

Sample questions for 2010 Junior NAC:

• According to Illinois Rules of the Road, what is the purpose of...
  Sixty second round: ROAD SIGNS.
  Identify this common automobile appliance from an audio clip. (Answer: HORN)
  Drivers must stop at a red light. Why?