Indiana 2022-23

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L.H.O.O.Q.
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Indiana 2022-23

Post by L.H.O.O.Q. »

Starting discussion for the Indiana QB circuit for this year.

I, personally, will be moving to Illinois very soon, but I still plan to assist with online tournaments, and work with the IASP to improve the state circuit.

Incidentally, if you are an Indiana QB player and interested in joining the state's community at-large, the Carmel QB team made a Discord server for that purpose a couple years back, and have been struggling to promote it. If you are interested, send me a DM and I'll send you an invite link.
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Re: Indiana 2022-23

Post by Ben Dillon »

L.H.O.O.Q. wrote: Sat Sep 03, 2022 3:20 pm I, personally, will be moving to Illinois very soon
I don't approve of this.

However, in the spirit of the post...

Carmel is again the team to beat, and Saint Joseph's has to rebuild, so it may be time for another team to emerge. The nominees are the teams that were strong last year, but it's unknown which ones have a strong returning roster: Hamilton Southeastern, North Central, and Herron are definitely contenders based on state, but a dark horse may be South Bend Adams, which competed well at HSNCT and may well dethrone Saint Joe from their league dynasty.
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Re: Indiana 2022-23

Post by L.H.O.O.Q. »

Here's my analysis of some notable teams from last year:

CARMEL
Notable losses: Akash, Shrithan, Austin, Nolan
Players to watch: Archit, Jordan, Anna
Despite graduating 4/5ths of the A team, Carmel still maintains some of the best talent in the state, with Archit and Jordan forming the obvious core of the A team. Barring massive internal improvement from other squads, this is the clear front-runner for me.

ST. JOSEPH
Notable losses: Sam, Josh, Peter
Players to watch: Emmanuel, Simon
St. Joseph also graduated its entire A team, and unlike Carmel, has no clear successors. However, St. Joseph always manages to pull together a fantastic team by year's end, and I believe Ben Dillon's coaching will produce another top-3 team.

CULVER
Notable losses: Julian, Mei
Players to watch: Teddy, Tobias, Aakrit
Culver is a sleeper pick to win state, in my opinion. They have a good crop of returning talent, and if they can coach earlier buzzes and better PPB out of them, that's a team to watch out for.

HAMILTON SOUTHEASTERN
Notable losses: Shlok
Players to watch: Sandi
HSE's meteoric rise to the top 3 was mainly powered by Shlok, and their A team was dominated by seniors, but their rapid improvement from Buzzathon to Area to State tells me they've got a great coach at the helm, and might be able to surprise us again.

HERRON
Notable losses: N/A
Players to watch: Sophia
No matter the context, 50 points per game at HSNCT is a strong individual showing, especially as a 10th grader. Sophia may be the best player prospect in the state.

JOHN ADAMS
Notable losses: Louisa
Players to watch: Joseph, David
Lack of grade info for Adams' players makes it hard to tell the state of their team, but Joseph is still there and can build off a solid year. The players around him could be anyone: in particular, if one-off players Michael and Anna are returning, Adams could have a powerful team brewing this year.

These are all the schools where I know meaningful information about the players leaving and returning. I'm noticing there are a ton of new schools cropping up on the IASP signups, including a growing scene in the south of the state. We also have Purdue QB alumni who may start quizbowl teams at the schools where they teach; look out for that as well.
Last edited by L.H.O.O.Q. on Tue Sep 13, 2022 5:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Indiana 2022-23

Post by nolanjunes »

Another year, another ranking. Indiana definitely has more parity now than last year, but Carmel A will remain untouched despite losing most of their top brass last year. Archit Kalra and Jordan Seigel are proven generalist talents that by themselves could dominate the Indiana scene right now, and adding specialists Eric Yang, Anna Liao, the Pho twins Anthony and Brian, Aarush Krishna, and Aayush Singh, Carmel has a clear path to the basket this year.

Speaking of Carmel, it's big. They've fielded subsequent B and C teams that ranked higher than all of Indiana on GrogerRanks before, so I might as well give Carmel B the number two spot. The roster sheet I listed above is ginormous, and some of them want to get in some real playing time I imagine.

I will now tip the hat to North Central. They were a statistical strong point at State and Regionals last year but (as I imagine) they had some unfortunate packets come their way, making for a slightly early exit than expected at State. If North Central reloads and doesn't flake out entirely for Chip Bowl, they are my favorite to come second at state this year (could be second best in the nation, you never know).

I probably shouldn't doubt St. Joseph as much as I do right now, but the talent drought (that I will speculate on toward the end) has struck the South Bend program. Losing the whole of their A Team with Indiana NASAT All-Star Sam Thomas, Josh Culver, Peter Dolniak, and Mackenzie Schmeltz out, typically St. Joe and Ben Dillon have a diamond in the rough (or four) by this point but I did not notice any significant developing talent in play or on the stats sheets last year.

Herron is tricky to rank. If the St. Joe rebuild doesn't produce any immediate success and North Central is AWOL at State, Herron is definitely the favorite for second. But, if either those two above cases don't happen, I can't say they're definitively the second best program in the state. Sophia Madrazo is a bona fide Indiana NASAT All-Star, but nobody does it all by themselves.

Culver has always fielded competitive teams. They lost Julian Zhang and most of their A Team, but they do have younger players to fill those spots and an ambitious coach, last I remember.


It's a weird time for Indiana Quiz Bowl. Compared to last year, state- and nation-wide, the talent level has seemingly dropped, probably due to the pandemic. Programs are struggling to be put together, and IASP is still semi-fostering two contradictory brands of Quiz Bowl with seemingly no possibility of reconciliation between the two. Seemingly just an average year for Indiana Quiz Bowl. :lol: Best of luck to all Indiana programs this year.
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Re: Indiana 2022-23

Post by L.H.O.O.Q. »

The Purdue University Quiz Bowl Team is hosting the Boilermaker Buzzathon on January 14th. This tournament, one week before Area, marks the only non-conference invitational in the state this year.

We've had a couple Indiana teams show up at out-of-state tournaments, and still more expected later this year. Some notes:

John Adams played a tournament in Michigan and paced the field in PP20TUH with an even 300. Joe Kirner is as advertised, and his teammates' statlines indicate complementary depth to create a strong team. According to Ben :Dillon, they also knocked off St. Joseph in their conference, which means they passed their first serious test. This team looks primed to make a run at State!

Carmel sent three teams to Ohio today and ran the table (I'm not sure who won between their A and B team, but they were the top two teams at the tournament). In addition to the players we knew would dominate (Archit, Jordan, and Anna), the brothers Pho have emerged as high-power threats to bolster the team's core (their Carmel center?).

Sycamore School has made appearances at several tournaments, and have utterly dominated no matter who's been on their roster. This team just debuted last year and is white-hot out of the gate. Park Tudor School, one of the main destinations for Sycamore graduates, also appears to be in prime position to start a team. Awesome things are happening in central Indy!

Looking ahead, Carmel and Madison Consolidated (!) have signed up to play in Kentucky in December, and we have our first couple signings for the Buzzathon already (the usual suspects - Rensselaer and St. Joseph). I've been hawking out-of-state tournament options with the lack of in-state ones, so look for those lists to grow a little over time!
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Re: Indiana 2022-23

Post by L.H.O.O.Q. »

The IASP have finally updated their confirmation list, and so we now know that 45 teams are expected to compete across the state in area competitions on January 14th. Plenty of fresh faces this year: welcome Adams Central, Alexandria, East Chicago Central, Eastern Greene, Huntington North, Jasper, North Daviess, Park Tudor, Reitz Memorial, and Lincoln!

In addition, we've got another set of performances at out-of-state tournaments, and I'll offer my thoughts below:

Carmel gave us a first look at their A team for JCPS HS Invitational, and the result is stark. They lapped a competitive field in every category and blew out every opponent. Even while missing some notable players, their B team performed like what may genuinely be the second best team in the state.

Also at JCPS were Madison Consolidated, who, despite their records, appear to have a set of players that can make some noise at the Indiana state level. Combining the top scorers on the A and B teams, they should have a good showing at Area and hopefully State.

At Swim n' Win Invitational, we got our first look at Culver. I had expected the team to be led by the likes of Teddy, Tobias, and Aakrit; I had not thought to look out for Emilia, who handily led the team to a third place finish. It looks like the team they sent was missing some key players, and a squad like that where all four players can light up the scoreboard can beat anyone if the packet falls their way. I maintain that Culver is a top-3 team this year.

We also got our first look at St. Joseph, who look inconsistent in the stats writeup. They demonstrated they have enough firepower to win games and get to State, but they don't look like a state championship contender this year.

The results of this year's Hoosier Heritage Conference tournament were posted too, and while we don't have detailed stats, Shelbyville had an unusually strong performance, indicating they may be a fringe state contender as well.

My updated top 5 going into winter break:
1. Carmel A
2. Carmel B
3. John Adams
4. Culver
5. Herron

Remember to sign up for the Buzzathon! The field has 9 teams right now, and if we reach 16 we may expand the field.
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Re: Indiana 2022-23

Post by L.H.O.O.Q. »

As we look forward to the spring semester, here's what's coming up in the state:

January 14: the Buzzathon. 24 teams from 12 schools are signed up, including every known major state championship contender. This is going to be the biggest fully-in-state tournament Indiana has seen since the pre-COVID Brownsburg Dogfights, and likely the most contentious in recent memory. I don't think top bracket will be big enough to fit all the teams that could deserve to play there.

January 21: the Area tournaments. There are 5 locations this year; St. Joseph, Homestead, McCutcheon, Center Grove, and Sullivan. I am very curious about the Homestead and Sullivan areas, which are both overwhelmingly comprised of new or inexperienced teams, as well as the McCutcheon area, where nearly every team either made or deserved to make State last year. Those areas have the potential to be quite chaotic.

February 18: State Finals! This is unfortunately still the double-elimination format. I'll comment more on this after Area.

March 4th: the Junior Area Contest, which I assume I am going to be hosting online. There are 8 teams signed up for this, and this time hopefully all of them make it! I don't have a lot of insight on the teams or level of competition, but, uh, Sycamore is really good. (They'll probably beat some State contenders at the Buzzathon.)

March 11th: Carmel BAGS. This is an online tournament that I'm guessing is going to cater to a "midwest at-large" field more so than a local Indiana field. Awesome to see high schools in Indiana hosting tournaments, though.

March 18th: Carmel CGI. This is an in-person tournament, and I expect it to be mostly in-state teams. The size of the Buzzathon this year proves that Indiana is no longer well-served by a single invitational a year, so teams like Carmel stepping up to host is great for the state.

Happy 2023! I'm personally super excited to see where this goes. I think we're starting to see a revival of the game after COVID lockdowns snuffed out a bunch of teams, and I think it won't be long at all before the state is even more competitive than it was in 2018-2020.
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Re: Indiana 2022-23

Post by L.H.O.O.Q. »

Congratulations to Carmel A for winning the Buzzathon! You had a monstrous showing, and it's well-deserved.

The Buzzathon passing means that I now have all the data I'm going to get about the upcoming Area Championship tournaments, so I thought I'd take some shots in the dark at predicting how they'll shake up. First, the teams that qualify for State based on their finish at Area:

Saint Joseph
1. Culver
2. John Adams
Neither of these teams have sent their fully-manned A teams to a tournament this year, and yet both have already firmly established themselves as top contenders in the state. Culver finished third(!) at the Buzzathon without their probable top scorer(!!), while John Adams seems to have a new scoring threat at every tournament. The only issue will be making sure that everyone can go!

Homestead
1. Indiana Academy
2. Homestead
The Homestead area is absolutely full of programs that are extremely new or very inactive, making it impossible to gauge the strength of the field. But Indiana Academy should retain their top scorer from their SSNCT run last year, and Homestead has the best track record of everyone left.

McCutcheon
1. Carmel
2. Hamilton Southeastern A
Carmel is obviously the team to beat at State, but beyond that, it's tough to tell who will rise to the top here. Ultimately, I picked Hamilton Southeastern A because of how quickly they improved last year, and because their coach felt the need to submit two teams (when the option is rarely taken in IASP Quiz Bowl).

Center Grove
1. Herron
2. Center Grove
The Buzzathon showed us that these two teams are absolutely legit. Both are clearly stronger than they were last year, and last year they finished... first and second in their area!

Sullivan
1. Reitz Memorial
This one is a complete shot in the dark. I could have also gone Sullivan here; do you take a large private school in its first competitive year, or a small public school with nats experience? Since Sullivan's top scorer graduated last year, I picked the former.

Nine placement qualifiers leaves room for seven at-large qualifiers. Here's how I think those might shake out, in no particular order:
Fishers
Andrean
St. Joseph
Guerin
Crown Point
Penn
Park Tudor A

Fishers, Andrean, and St. Joseph A were picked due to the perennial strength of their programs. In addition, St. Joseph and Guerin both had strong performances at the Buzzathon, and I am pretty sure neither was at full strength. Crown Point was selected due to their extremely successful season last year, under the assumption that some of the players on that team returned. Penn was selected due to its success in JV at last year's St. Joseph Valley League, under the assumption that those players have graduated to the varsity team. And finally, Park Tudor A was picked due to the success of similar programs in their first years, such as Herron and Sycamore.

Best of luck to everyone playing at the Area tournaments next weekend! I can't wait to see how it all plays out.
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Re: Indiana 2022-23

Post by L.H.O.O.Q. »

Oh, right, Area happened, lol. Here's my thoughts:

Saint Joseph
1. Culver
2. St. Joseph A
This area was REALLY competitive this year. No team came out unscathed, but Culver was the best in most statistical categories. St. Joseph A surprised me with their quick rise, but maybe they shouldn't have - after all, they still have the Bill Belichick of Indiana Quiz Bowl coaching. Andrean and Chesterton are the standouts from the Duneland crowd, both averaging over 300 points per game and 16 points per bonus, and John Adams had a great showing despite falling short of the finals. (Culver beat them in the semis.)

Homestead
1. Huntington North
2. Indiana Academy
Well, this is a surprise! In their first year of competition, Huntington North immediately ran the table at their area tournament, twice beating a statistically-superior Indiana Academy team. From what I hear, Huntington North's coach is doing good work trying to build that circuit up, so this will be a region to watch in the coming years.

McCutcheon
1. Carmel
2. Fishers
Carmel didn't have their top scorer until halfway through the day. In that time, they beat multiple teams by 700 points, including a game in which they achieved 17 powers. There are simply not enough superlatives for them; however, this site does reveal a critical issue with the qualification system. Fishers, Guerin, and Hamilton SE A were basically in deadlock for the second-place spot, with all three teams roughly evenly matched, but because Guerin drew the short stick and had to face Carmel in the semifinals, Fishers and Hamilton SE made it into State while Guerin missed out entirely. This is only one of several issues I had with this year's area competitions.

Center Grove
1. Park Tudor
2. North Central
Another hyper-competitive area! Lots of unexpected results at this one. For one, I did call a bunch of relatively unknown teams being good; I said to look out for Park Tudor, Madison Consolidated, and Shelbyville, and each played well at this tournament's extremely difficult field. But I could not have predicted Park Tudor winning the whole thing, nor could I have predicted North Central crashing the party unannounced! NCHS still has Akshay and apparently a great cast around him, as they were easily the second-best team in the state by all available statistics. Herron and Center Grove, who each would have dominated some of the other areas, played a match for third place, which Herron narrowly won.

Sullivan
1. Barr-Reeve
2. Sullivan A
Reitz Memorial didn't end up playing, so my guess was wrong from the start. Sullivan A seemed the better team by statistics, but game results are what matters, and Barr-Reeve ran the table at this area. Barr-Reeve also saw a noticeable uptick in points per bonus in the elimination games, so they may not have been running their best four until they knew they had to run up scores. Also, congratulations to Eastern Greene, who put together an impressive first-time performance!

Unrelated to the performance of the teams themselves, can anyone tell me why Sullivan, a 5-team area, had 2 auto-bits to State? That really seems flawed. At last year's 4-team Homestead area, only the top team qualified; why is the threshold 5 teams?

Seeding at State
The first-round matchups on February 18th are as follows:
1 Carmel vs 16 Indiana Academy
8 Andrean vs 9 John Adams
5 Herron vs 12 Sullivan
4 Chesterton vs 13 Penn
3 Culver vs 14 Huntington North
6 Center Grove vs 11 Saint Joseph
7 Hamilton SE vs 10 Barr-Reeve
2 North Central vs 15 Fishers
(Park Tudor declined their invitation.)

There will also be an Individual Championship on the same day immediately after State, where individual players will be challenged on the collegiate set C++. More info here.
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Re: Indiana 2022-23

Post by Ben Dillon »

L.H.O.O.Q. wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 8:05 pm St. Joseph A surprised me with their quick rise, but maybe they shouldn't have - after all, they still have the Bill Belichick of Indiana Quiz Bowl coaching.
Hmmm... not sure I'm comfortable with this comparison. I might even be deflated.
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Re: Indiana 2022-23

Post by L.H.O.O.Q. »

It's time for the STATE CHAMPIONSHIP POSTMORTEM. Lots to go over here!

1. Individual Stats
Purdue Quiz Bowl managed to procure 16 staffers, meaning that we were able to roll with individual statkeeping for all games at State even while using the IASP scoresheets that make it difficult. I consider this a win for bringing Indiana quiz bowl into the modern age. It also shone a light on good players in the state that we didn't know about; I'd like to shout out Lee Blakcom of Fishers, who emerged from the White River league to put together one of the best individual buzzer performances all year. The advent of individual stats did make one thing clear, though...

2. Where is everyone?
Evidently, State overlapped with one or more other events of interest to quiz bowl players, as many teams were missing high-scoring players. Center Grove was missing all three of their every-game players from the Buzzathon; North Central was missing at least one top player; Park Tudor's entire team cancelled; Sullivan was decimated, sending only two players; and even Carmel, who won the tournament, was missing arguably one of the top-5 players in the state. State was on a different date this year than in years past, and it begs the question; what event did we conflict with? The biggest absences were centered around Indianapolis; was there a more prestigious academic event we were unknowingly competing with?

3. What's Next?
Lots of things are next. Carmel is hosting an online high school tournament on March 11th and an in-person one on March 18th; the latter is drawing a diverse field from around the state, including Adams Central, Herron, Huntington North, John Adams, St. Joseph, and a rogue appearance from Zionsville.

Coming up next for me is the IASP Junior Quiz Bowl Area Championship, or middle school State, on March 4th. That will be an interesting one, as the field consists of Sycamore, easily one of the best teams in the state (MS or HS), and numerous teams for whom State is the only tournament of the year. There's no in-between there, so I have no idea how things will shake out.

Beyond that, Indiana has more teams registered for national championships than ever before:
MSNCT: Sycamore A & B
SSNCT: Indiana Academy
IPNCT: John Adams (Eden, Michael, Joseph, Jesse), Sycamore (Sameer); Center Grove (Gowthamm and Mahindra are waitlisted)
HSNCT: Carmel A & B, Herron, John Adams, Park Tudor
PACE NSC: Saint Joseph

These teams and players are richly deserving of their spots at these tournaments, and I have no doubt they will represent the growing excellence of Indiana quiz bowl.
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Re: Indiana 2022-23

Post by L.H.O.O.Q. »

Now that we have all of the tournament results from the regular season, I'm thinking of a little pre-nats breakdown. But first...

Prologue: The Carmel Greyhound Invitational
Carmel ran two excellent tournaments this month, and the Carmel Greyhound Invitational provided us with a ton of previously-missing information and great storylines from the season. John Adams A pulled through to win the tournament on statistical tiebreakers, as neither they nor Carmel A were interested in playing a final. The mostly-nonpyramidal Zionsville stopped by to play this one, and were quite impressive; and Martinsville scrounged a team together in just a month to play at the tournament, and their all-freshman team featured the tournament's top scorer. Center Grove finished comfortably among the state's HSNCT qualifiers, and hopefully they'll make their case as a wild-card nationals team themselves.

Now that I've run through that, let's look at all the teams we've got competing at national events this year!

MSNCT
Sycamore A and Sycamore B are competing at MSNCT, and both teams have been undeniable this year. I think they're probably doing the same team alignment they've done all year, but I honestly think that if they juggled their players to form a super-A team of Annalisa, Gavin, Evan, and Sameer, they would have a legitimate shot at winning the whole tournament. Regardless of how they arrange their players, I think all the tournament results thus far show Sycamore as legitimately one of the best middle school teams in the country - an amazing feat for a program in its second year.

SSNCT
Indiana Academy is competing in the Open division of SSNCT. We only have a couple results for them, but based on their performance at state, the tandem of Xavier and Carson look ready to make some noise. I think they have a reasonable shot at making the top 24 and sneaking into the Sunday playoffs. I love seeing historically non-pyramidal schools more willing to try competitions like this!

IPNCT
Eight players from three schools are competing at IPNCT: Max, Gowthamm, and Mahindra from Center Grove; Eden, Michael, Joseph, and Jesse from John Adams; and Sameer from Sycamore. Almost all of these players are ones I would definitely consider naming to an Indiana NASAT team, but I wonder how they'll handle the super-hard questions at IPNCT. I think Gowthamm in particular will surprise a lot of people from outside the state.

HSNCT
Five teams from four schools are competing at HSNCT: Carmel A and B, Herron, John Adams, and Park Tudor.

The fully-staffed Carmel A is obviously the gold standard in Indiana, and I believe their undefeated season will persist into the early rounds of HSNCT. Carmel has a glut of very good players below the A team, and they could probably plug any 4-7 of them into their B team and see good results. Both of these teams have a solid chance at making the double-elimination phase.

John Adams also has about 5 different players who deserve major playing time on their top team; they've been short-staffed all year, but I think at this point it's obvious that if their whole team can make the tournament, they're easily one of the best in the state. I can see them turning heads at nats this year.

Herron has been locked in since the beginning of the year, roster-wise, and it's worked wonderfully for them. They started the year as an elite team, and yet their power numbers and PPB have been steadily growing throughout the season; they seem to be ramping up for a run.

Park Tudor came out of nowhere this year and are immediately in the upper echelons of the state. Their team is extremely young, and I'm pretty sure a lot of their players are related to the players at Sycamore, which bodes well for their future; however they do in their first foray into national quizbowl, they're likely to keep getting stellar players each year, and that resource could turn them into a national powerhouse.

PACE NSC
Three teams from two schools are competing at PACE NSC: John Adams A, John Adams B, and Saint Joseph.

I've already spoken about John Adams, but I think it's worth mentioning that I expect them to do better at PACE, since their home league uses bouncebacks and they'll likely roll with fewer substitutions on their top team, meaning their best players would be playing more often.

Saint Joseph has been ramping up at a surprising pace, particularly on the buzzer. While this has been a rebuilding year for the dynasty, they've still got a lot of good pieces, and most of those pieces will be returning for at least one more year. No matter how the season ends for them this year, it's hard not to think they'll return to the truly elite before their current core graduates.

--

Can't wait to see how all these championships play out! Indiana quiz bowl seems to be in the best place it's been in years. After all the championships have passed, we'll run the end-of-year teams and players poll.
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Re: Indiana 2022-23

Post by L.H.O.O.Q. »

Hello again! PACE NSC just ended, and we have no NASAT team, so I'm pretty sure the Indiana Quiz Bowl season is officially finished. Below are all Indiana teams' finishes at each national championship:

MSNCT
Sycamore B: T-8th
Sycamore A: T-13th
Players receiving scoring awards: Evan Ting, Sameer Zaidi

SSNCT
Indiana Academy: 43rd

IPNCT
Sameer Zaidi (Sycamore): 65th
Michael Camilleri (John Adams): 78th
Joseph Kirner (John Adams): 87th
Jesse Rabbitt (John Adams): 140th
Jonah Arzadon (John Adams): 145th
Max Kolda (John Adams): 151st
Eden Blakemore (John Adams): 153rd
Max Barton (Center Grove): 162nd
Gowthamm Mandala (Center Grove): 190th
Mahindra Sai Mandala (Center Grove): 195th

HSNCT
Carmel A: T-33rd
Carmel B: T-33rd
Herron: 157th
Park Tudor: 227th
John Adams: 228th

PACE NSC
Saint Joseph: 64th
John Adams B: T-66th
John Adams A: 68th

I'm very tired, so I won't provide commentary here. Instead, it's time to promote the post-season polls! Please fill out the below poll for both teams and players:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIp ... sp=sf_link
Sarah Benner
Avon HS 2013-17, Purdue 2017-21
Unofficial QB Advisor for Purdue, Ohio State, and the State of Indiana

May refer to herself in the third person.
User avatar
L.H.O.O.Q.
Wakka
Posts: 155
Joined: Wed Dec 20, 2017 10:24 pm
Location: Columbus, OH

Re: Indiana 2022-23

Post by L.H.O.O.Q. »

The post-season poll has been completed! 13 ballots have been accepted (after throwing out the ones that were obvious trolling). Below is a write-up of the results, including a summary of notable commentary each team received:

TEAMS

1. Carmel A, 130 points, avg. ranking of 1, ranked in 100% of ballots
Roster: Archit Kalra, Anthony Pho, Brian Pho, Jordan Seigel
Voter commentary: Their undefeated in-state record is backed up by complete statistical dominance on regular difficulty questions. By placing T-33rd at HSNCT, Carmel A solidified themselves as not just the class of Indiana, but one of the best teams in the world.

2. Carmel B, 105 points, avg. ranking of 2.3, ranked in 92% of ballots
Roster: Tanay Acharya, Anna Liao, Nate Martin, Christopher Xu, Eric Yang
Voter commentary: We didn’t see much of the full team, but even so, fragments of this team went undefeated against in-state opposition other than their own A team. The full team just kept winning and winning at HSNCT, eventually unexpectedly tying with their A team.

3. Herron A, 93 points, avg. ranking of 3.8, ranked in 100% of ballots
Roster: Henry Brown, Sophia Madrazo, Richard Morris, Matthew Wims
Voter commentary: Herron had the benefit of a full roster at every tournament they attended, making their season-long improvement clear; they were near tops in the state in powers and points per bonus, and seemed unfazed by the difficult questions at HSNCT.

4. Culver A, 73 points, avg. ranking of 4.4, ranked in 85% of ballots
Roster: Edward Foster, Tobias McClure, Aakrit Mehrotra, Emilia Murphy, Natalia Somma Tang
Voter commentary: I don’t believe Culver ever lost to an in-state team not from Carmel. The state championship runners-up received strong contributions from all members, particularly at the Buzzathon, where they finished in third without their probable top scorer, Emilia.

5. John Adams A, 69 points, avg. ranking of 4.7, ranked in 85% of ballots
Roster: Jonah Arzadon, Eden Blakemore, Michael Camilleri, Isaac Howk, Joseph Kirner, Max Kolda, Anna Rosato
Voter commentary: John Adams was an exemplary team this year with enormous amounts of talent. They never got to play their full A team, and it didn’t matter; whoever was in, they just kept winning! Coach Stanton-Verduzco did an amazing job managing the most active team in the state this year, bringing them to three different nationals.

6. Sycamore B, 33 points, avg. ranking of 5.5, ranked in 46% of ballots
Roster: Akhil Jois, Steve Hackwelder, Jeffrey Kirkendall, Shayen Maun, Gavin Sigua, Evan Ting
Voter commentary: While they are a middle school team, they’ve performed at a high level on high school questions all year, and directly outplayed high school competition at the Buzzathon. Not only is it fair to evaluate them as a high school team, but it’s also fair to call them one of the best.

T-7. Center Grove A, 31 points, avg. ranking of 7.1, ranked in 62% of ballots
Roster: Max Barton, Grant Embrey, Gowthamm Mandala, Ryne Roehling, Jordan Steinkamp, Jake Thornton
Voter commentary: Much like John Adams, Center Grove deserves praise for going all-in on a strong team. They were a top team in the state all year, and if you flipped one or two close losses, we’d probably be talking about their performance at HSNCT.

T-7. Park Tudor A, 31 points, avg. ranking of 7.1, ranked in 62% of ballots
Roster: Hemant Atluri, Sragvee Atluri, Alex Cheng, Emily Hackwelder, Aashiv Jain, Insia Zaidi
Voter commentary: Like Herron last year, Park Tudor sprung out of nowhere and were instantly terrific within the state. Their core is no older than 10th grade, and they’re likely adding Insia’s brother Sameer next year; no team has a more obviously bright future than them.

9. Saint Joseph A, 25 points, avg. ranking of 6.8, ranked in 46% of ballots
Roster: Thomas Belcher, Evan Eggleston, Genevieve Lake, Hetvi Patel, William Thain, Emmanuel Thomas
Voter commentary: The rate at which this team improved is hard to ignore; three of their non-senior players set career highs at either CGI or PACE NSC. Limited chances against the upper teams in the state, especially towards the end of the season, may have prevented them from a higher finish.

10. Sycamore A, 22 points, avg. ranking of 5.5, ranked in 31% of ballots
Roster: Sonali Guttikonda, Riva Jain, Alessandro Salerno, Annalisa Schuth, Sameer Zaidi
Voter commentary: While this team struggled a bit more at high school difficulty than their B team, they were still standout performers at the Buzzathon (as Sycamore B). As part of their late season run, Sameer paced all Indiana players at IPNCT.

Also receiving votes: Carmel C (12 points), North Central A (8), Hamilton Southeastern A (6), John Adams B (3), University A (2), Andrean A (1), Chesterton A (1)

INDIVIDUALS

1. Archit Kalra (Carmel), 110 points, avg. ranking of 1, ranked in 100% of ballots
Voter commentary: Archit routinely found himself at the top of the individual leaderboards in the state’s tournaments. He studied literature this year to add to his excellent science knowledge, and led Carmel A in dominating the state.

2. Jordan Seigel (Carmel), 81 points, avg. ranking of 2, ranked in 82% of ballots
Voter commentary: At HSNCT, Jordan looked every bit Archit’s equal, leading Carmel A in powers and earning clutch buzzes against excellent teams. His knowledge of social science and current events is invaluable in a state where depth in those subjects is at a premium.

3. Sophia Madrazo (Herron), 55 points, avg. ranking of 5.5, ranked in 91% of ballots
Voter commentary: Sophia has been improving noticeably, particularly in her increased power numbers. As the captain of one of the top teams in the state by points per bonus, she demonstrates incredible range and depth of knowledge, and seems adept at leading her team as well.

4. Evan Ting (Sycamore), 46 points, avg. ranking of 4.4, ranked in 64% of ballots
Voter commentary: It seems strange to evaluate a 7th grader as if he were a high school player, but then again, Evan was the second top scorer at the Buzzathon against high school opposition. He’s already built up an extensive resume of gaudy scoring on HS-difficulty questions (and harder!).

5. Nate Martin (Carmel), 41 points, avg. ranking of 4.2, ranked in 55% of ballots
Voter commentary: Nate came seemingly out of nowhere at the end of the year to become probably the best literature player in the state. He led Carmel B in scoring and powers at HSNCT, and likely won them games against several teams with strong reputations.

6. Anthony Pho (Carmel), 39 points, avg. ranking of 4.5, ranked in 55% of ballots
Voter commentary: 31 / 5 / 5. That was Anthony’s statline at the Buzzathon, where he was second among all players in powers. Even as a sophomore, he seems to have completely mastered the history distribution, monopolizing many other teams’ best subject.

7. Brian Pho (Carmel), 29 points, avg. ranking of 5.2, ranked in 45% of ballots
Voter commentary: Brian’s mastery of fine arts rivals the history knowledge of his brother Anthony, but, since fine arts comes up less, he gets the short end of the rankings. Depending on how they expand their horizons next year, we could be looking at a very different ranking next year.

T-8. Christopher Xu (Carmel), 22 points, avg. ranking of 7.3, ranked in 55% of ballots
Voter commentary: Along with Eric, Chris anchored the Carmel B squad that outplayed most other schools' A teams. While his scoring indicates a wide general knowledge base, his teammates praise his history knowledge, particularly in ancient and classical.

T-8. Eric Yang (Carmel), 22 points, avg. ranking of 6.6, ranked in 45% of ballots
Voter commentary: As the most consistent member of Carmel B, Eric made a name for himself at the Buzzathon by dropping 100 points on third-place Culver A and 55 on Herron A. His teammates commend his fine arts knowledge as the best in their elite program.

T-10. Max Kolda (John Adams), 20 points, avg. ranking of 7, ranked in 45% of ballots
Voter commentary: While Adams was already an excellent team at the start of the season, Max's meteoric rise established them as a team to beat within the state. He led the team in overall scoring at CGI, then proved it wasn't a fluke by doing the same at PACE NSC.

T-10. Anna Liao (Carmel), 20 points, avg. ranking of 6, ranked in 36% of ballots
Voter commentary: While she didn’t play much this season, Anna came in from the top rope at CGI and scorched great competition in the playoffs. Her teammates singled out her biology and literature knowledge, which scaled up to harder tournaments later in the season.

Also receiving votes: Gowthamm Mandala (Center Grove, 14 points), Joseph Kirner (John Adams, 9), Tanay Acharya (Carmel, 8), Sandi Kambhampati (Hamilton Southeastern, 7), Akshay Guttikonda (North Central, 6), Sameer Zaidi (Sycamore, 6), Abram Polley (Martinsville, 5), Insia Zaidi (Park Tudor, 4), Lee Balkcom (Fishers, 3), Gavin Sigua (Sycamore, 3), Aakrit Mehrotra (Culver, 2), Max Barton (Center Grove, 1), Emilia Murphy (Culver, 1)

Thank you to this year’s voters: Sarah Benner, Ben Dillon, Austin Guo, Adam Hartz, Nolan Jones, Safin Khatri, Joseph Kirner, Anna Liao, David Mathew, Reilly Melville, Anjali Prasad, Jordan Seigel, Insia Zaidi

That wraps up the Indiana quiz bowl season. Amazing work, everyone! The state is getting better and better with each passing year, and it's hard not to be optimistic looking at all the great young players returning next year.
Sarah Benner
Avon HS 2013-17, Purdue 2017-21
Unofficial QB Advisor for Purdue, Ohio State, and the State of Indiana

May refer to herself in the third person.
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