Indiana 2023-24

[L.H.O.O.Q.]

Hello, all. Here's the thread for Indiana QB discussion this year.

I'm gonna be living in Ohio this year, and helping Ohio State's QB team as a volunteer staffer, so I stand to be less involved in INQB this year. I am, however, still overly interested in the QB scene in Indiana, so I'll be watching from afar.

Of note: Purdue is planning to revive the old Indiana Kickoff tournament and host it in early October. Look out for that announcement. (I believe the tournament is already listed for the 7th on NAQT's schedule of events.)

Sometime in the future, I might write some pre-season thoughts on each team, but for now, this will suffice: I think this will be the most competitive year in INQB since at least 2019-20. There are a LOT of teams that should be legitimately vying for the state championship this year. Can't wait to watch it play out!

[Halinaxus]

As Sarah noted, Purdue will indeed be running Kickoff on October 7th. Full details here.

[L.H.O.O.Q.]

With the Indiana Kickoff only a couple weeks away, I decided to finally sit down and give my preseason thoughts on some notable teams this year! Teams are ranked based on the level of competitiveness I think they can achieve.

Carmel A
Probable Players: Anna Liao, Anthony Pho, Brian Pho
Last year, I was cautious about a Carmel team that had just lost four elite seniors, and they ended up being just as dominant. This year, they retain vital parts of last year's high-powered A and B teams, and I think it's safe to expect them to once again be the class of the state.

Park Tudor
Probable Players: Alex Cheng, Emily Hackwelder, Insia Zaidi, Sameer Zaidi
Before 2019, there were always at least two teams that would be in serious contention for state. Last year, Carmel had no rivals. This year, I think Park Tudor can be that. Their entire HSNCT roster is returning this year, and is probably going to be bolstered by a superstar from Sycamore who should be immediately ready to contribute.

Carmel B
Probable Players: Safin Khatri, Aayush Singh, Karthik Varigonda, Keefe Yang
Most likely, one of these four players is going to be on Carmel A. Regardless, these are four great players, and Carmel seems to have the resources to make more. Whoever fills out this lineup, it's probably a dominant one.

Culver
Probable Players: Ted Foster, Tobias McClure, Aakrit Mehrotra
This trio was hard to touch last year, beating every team they faced besides Carmel and John Adams (and then reversing the latter in convincing fashion). If Emilia returns as well, this team could leapfrog Park Tudor.

Sycamore
Probable Players: Shayen Maun, Gavin Sigua, Evan Ting
This team played at the TQBA Online Jamboree on Saturday, and approached 400 ppg on a high school set. This team is going to cause problems - the only question is whether they can keep up this kind of scoring against high school opponents.

Herron
Probable Players: Henry Brown, Sophia Madrazo, Richard Morris
The name of the game for Herron last year was improvement. Despite losing a strong power threat in Matthew, I don't think they'll miss a beat, and they should be much the same team this year.

John Adams
Probable Players: Jonah Arzadon, Michael Camilleri, Adam Hartz, Isaac Howk, David Nagy, Jesse Rabbitt
Despite graduating key players from last year's A team, John Adams still has a deep, very talented roster, including some underclassmen who beat last year's seniors at PACE, as well as a great coach.

Saint Joseph
Probable Players: Thomas Belcher, Hetvi Patel, William Thain
The above trio all showed flashes of serious talent late in last season, and they have the benefit of coming up in one of the greatest programs in INQB history. I think this team has an incredibly high ceiling.

Other Notables
North Central
Hamilton Southeastern
Fishers
University
Guerin
Andrean

The Indiana Kickoff will be the first showcase for many of these teams, and their first chance to make a statement for the year. This tournament is sure to be a blast. I can't wait to see how it goes!

[L.H.O.O.Q.]

Big news: we have two all-new tournaments being hosted within Indiana!

On October 21st, St. Joseph and Notre Dame are co-hosting PANDA on the high school regular difficulty set Planetfall. I think this is roughly the difficulty that will be played at State Finals.

On December 2nd, Herron is hosting the Achaean Invitational on IS-226, questions the same difficulty as will be played at State Finals.

The Indiana Kickoff occurred this past Saturday, and I'd say that the revival of that tournament was a success! Carmel A went undefeated en route to the championship, but other teams in the state seem to be building up to their level. I'd like to point out a few interesting performances from the tournament:

Carmel A's Anthony Pho keeping the same absurd power percentage despite now being his team's top scorer is, well, absurd. Keep in mind that everyone on this team is a junior, so everything this year can be seen as a buildup to 2025 nationals.

Sycamore is just as legit - perhaps even more so - when playing in person against high school opposition. We haven't seen a lot of Gavin, but his debut halfway through the tournament marked a significant increase in PPB for the team.

Park Tudor was as advertised. Compared to last year's Buzzathon, Sameer Zaidi looks like a totally different player; I had figured he'd make a great addition to their team, but the high-powered 75-ppg performance at Kickoff was beyond my expectations. A fully-staffed Park Tudor might be legitimate challengers to Carmel this year.

Carmel B is beyond what I'd expected, and it gets even better when you realize that Karthik Varigonda probably fills their fourth chair. Carmel continues to create new talent, and should also benefit from their status as a common destination for Sycamore grads like Riva Jain.

Saint Joseph A took a big step forward, as predicted, but it was new A-team member Teddy Berente who impressed the most. Guerin A's dynamic duo of Will Griffin and Audrey Gunawan powered a dark-horse contender that seemingly had Park Tudor's kryptonite. The rebuilding Center Grove had a good run centered on underclassmen Jordan Steinkamp and Adam Main. Martinsville A was a vibe-check all day due to Abram Polley's amazing consistency. Carmel C and Huntington North both showed flashes of brilliance from underclassmen like Noah Kahn, Rebecca Li, Gavin Crago, and Zane Vatter.

[buffalo]

I think that Guerin and St. Joseph have not shown their full potential, because they both had some standout players, so we will definitely see more of them in the coming tournaments, and it's possible that they may also have potential to win the State title as well

User was reminded to enable a signature. --Mgmt.

[L.H.O.O.Q.]

A couple items:

First, John Adams sent three teams to the Jan Rademacher Memorial Tournament in White Cloud, MI, and all three were very successful and very impressive. Statistically, Adams A and B both belonged among the top Indiana Kickoff teams. Michael Camilleri, in particular, looked like one of the best players in the state, and the C team saw an impressive debut by Espen Luppes.

Second, Notre Dame/St. Joseph's Planetfall mirror, PANDA, has been postponed to the spring.

Third, I have assembled a Google spreadsheet of all tournaments hypothetically accessible by a team in Indiana; this includes in-state tournaments, as well as ones in Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, and the lower peninsula of Michigan, and all online tournaments I could find. I will be updating it semi-regularly.
The tournament sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Fourth, the Indiana Quiz Bowl Discord Server is being revamped! As a Community Server, we now have a permanent invite link. If you'd like to connect with the larger Indiana quiz bowl scene and stay in the know about upcoming events, this is a great place to be. Upon entry, you should introduce yourself with your name, grade/status, and affiliation (e.g. "Akash Bhowmik, 12th, Carmel", "Ben Dillon, Coach, St. Joseph"); you will not be verified without this information.
The invite link: https://discord.com/invite/26wPDwM49k

That's all! My next big update will probably be after the Achaean Invitational.

[Halinaxus]

The 8th annual Purdue Boilermaker Buzzathon has been confirmed for January 13th, 2024. Full details here. We hope to see you there!

[L.H.O.O.Q.]

Reminder that only one week remains to sign up for IASP quiz bowl! Make sure you sign up so you can compete for the new 18-team state championship!

[L.H.O.O.Q.]

This update comes a bit earlier than expected, since we had a lot of teams compete on IS-224 sets this past couple weeks, and I want to acknowledge their achievements!

On November 11th, three schools from Indiana played at the Holland Fall Invitational. This tournament was played with timed rounds and inexperienced readers, and based on talks with a coach, I'm going to assume that most games were around 15 tossups, which explains the tournament's low scoring. My estimates of their PPGs come from multiplying their actual PPGs by 4/3.

Culver (est. 240ppg) won several tight games at the tournament, including a 10-point win over a high-flying John Adams A (est. 269ppg). John Adams B (est. 262.5ppg) once again rivaled their own A team, and routed what looks to be a very good team in St. Joseph A (est. 205ppg). John Adams C (est. 169ppg) and St. Joseph B (est. 162ppg) both looked capable as well in what is probably their first taste of State Finals-difficulty questions.

On November 18th, two schools from Indiana played at the Anita Zuber Memorial Tournament. An assortment of players from Carmel and Huntington North divided themselves among the Varsity and JV Divisions, and clogged up the tops of both.

As Indiana's sole representative in the Varsity division, Carmel A (with none of their Kickoff A team players) notched a second-place finish with a close 10-point win against perennial national championship contender Detroit Catholic Central. Karthik Varigonda handily led the team in scoring, including a 90-point performance in that statement win. Anjali Prasad and Keefe Yang both impressed as well, showing the team's wealth of varsity options.

In the JV division, Huntington North went undefeated on the back of a dominant performance by history guru Zane Vatter, whose abilities seem to scale difficulties just fine. To win the tournament, they narrowly beat a very dominant Carmel B, led by the impressive debutant Michael Fortuna, high-scoring rookie Rebecca Li, and much-improved Devin Joshi. Boasting their organization's depth, a Carmel C of all new players finished fourth led by sophomore Sam Pugh.

Coming up: 24 teams are signed up for the Achaean Invitational at Herron on December 2nd. To help this tournament happen, I will be riding over to Indianapolis along with a contingent of Ohio State players to help staff. See ya there!

[jonah]

On November 11th, three schools from Indiana played at the Holland Fall Invitational. This tournament was played with timed rounds and inexperienced readers, and based on talks with a coach, I'm going to assume that most games were around 15 tossups, which explains the tournament's low scoring. My estimates of their PPGs come from multiplying their actual PPGs by 4/3.

I just added full stats. Thanks to DeWitt coach Jimmy Dunn for entering them.

[L.H.O.O.Q.]

I had a great time visiting Indiana for the Achaean Invitational! Herron put together a great event, and it's sure to be an annual hit. Central Indiana seemed, by and large, ready for the challenge, and that seems a testament to the way the state has rebounded since lockdowns kneecapped a lot of the existing programs. I'd like to celebrate each and every team that played on Saturday:

Sycamore A won the tournament on the back of Evan Ting, who once again led the entire field in scoring and powers. The best middle school player in the world doubles as the best high school player in Indiana. Shadowed by Evan's achievements was Gavin Sigua, who deserves recognition for scoring in good volume and having multiple 60-point games while seated next to him.

Culver A's high-flying trio of Teddy Foster, Tobias McClure, and Aakrit Mehrotra, who, recall, dominated last year's Buzzathon, were overshadowed this year by rookie sophomore Albert Lu, who handily led the team in points and powers. The Eagles gritted out tough wins against Carmel A and Herron A to vault themselves into second place.

Herron A looks much different, despite retaining similar personnel to last year. Sophia Madrazo's relatively low scoring was only because of the incredible improvement of longtime teammates Henry Brown and Richard Morris. Freshman Arch Fox was also extremely impressive in their debut. In a remarkable change of pace, those three players each outscored Sophia in their back-to-back bashings of Carmel A.

Carmel A comfortably led the field in points per bonus, as Karthik Varigonda had another monstrous day. This was largely the same squad that took down DCC at Anita Zuber, and they also notched Sycamore's only loss on the day, which only serves to put more emphasis on how impressive the top teams at this tournament were.

University High A ditched the Brownsburg Dogfight to make their first pyramidal quiz bowl appearance since 2016, and led the entire field in powers. The harder questions and tougher teams didn't seem to faze them at all, as Mikey Cardwell led a balanced attack on tossups that smothered teams' scoring. With time, as they learn the format, the team's deep, balanced knowledge should start showing up in points per bonus and make them even more daunting to face.

Carmel B was a rogue's gallery of inexperienced scorers from previous tournaments, who notched a crucial close win over Park Tudor A before A-teamer Anna Liao arrived halfway through the day to help them close the day on a 4-game win streak. Rookies Michael Fortuna, Ryan Sharp, and Rithvik Varigonda showed a lot of promise, and might be Carmel Quiz Bowl's latest development projects.

Park Tudor B was the result of Park Tudor splitting their A team into two halves. Freshman phenom Sameer Zaidi was the top scorer after the prelims, and HSNCT veteran Emily Hackwelder bolstered his scoring with deep pop culture buzzes. I'd say that this finish is still far below Park Tudor's potential if they play at full strength; we may be looking at State finalists in that case.

North Central was one of very few teams at this event to be led by their seniors, with Riley Sherman and Jonathan Martinez leading the effort. However, it was ex-Sycamore junior Deke Kandel who led their surprise win over John Adams A to place them in second bracket.

John Adams A had a two-pronged attack led by Michael Camilleri and debutant Clara Walton, the latter of whom came in with an impressive knowledge of literature. The team was better than their record, suffering three close losses by a combined 75 points; flipping any one of those results would probably place them in second bracket instead of third.

John Adams B looked closer to their A team than ever, with uncannily similar stats and an identical finishing record. With yet another strong performance, it's worth wondering if Mary McVeigh and Jesse Rabbitt eventually get promoted to the A team.

Park Tudor A was led by the other half of their full A team, Alex Cheng and Insia Zaidi, the latter of whom led a big upset against University A and is looking more impressive at every event. Joseph Mokaya also appeared to be an intriguing option who may push his way into a fifth-player role on the eventual A team.

Huntington North saw another strong effort by Zane Vatter and the emergence of Liam Sell as a third scoring threat. University High B's team of freshmen regrouped from a difficult start to the day to win their last three games, including an impressive drubbing of Center Grove led by Owen Murray and Alessandro Salerno. Center Grove took their lumps, but are sure to make gains as Adam Main and Jordan Steinkamp get more experience. Martinsville A was led by yet another impressive effort by Abram Polley, but it took more than a top-10 player in the state to stay afloat in this tough field. And while Indiana Academy went home winless, they played fellow state candidates Center Grove and Martinsville down to the wire, and they're still one of the better teams in Indiana.

Bloomington North were crowned champions of D2 by tiebreaker, led by D2 top scorer Cyrus Urheim. They'll provide Martinsville with tight competition for the southern Indiana area championship. The balanced attack of newbies Caroline Hulsey and Rebecca Li buoyed Carmel C as they matched Bloomington North's day, and John Adams C rounded out the three-way tie thanks to the efforts of Jonah Arzadon and Espen Luppes. Sycamore B captain Lila Epstein had an impressive debut on questions well above middle-school level, while Sam Pugh led Carmel D's talented young squad. Seph Conley led the senior squad of Herron B, while Ava Madrazo and Henry Nolan highlighted the "quizlets" of Herron C. Ben Wei was impressive for University High C, while Jason Tang led Culver B. Despite going winless, Martinsville B saw sparks of deep scoring from Victoria Hinchman and Grace Niese, who could help Abram on the A team.

I'd also like to give a special shout-out to Ellen Rispoli, the tournament director, as well as my friends from Ohio State and Purdue, who swooped in to help the tournament run smoothly. Thank you to Danel Fernandez, Jacob Goodson, Reilly Melville, Nathan Reed, Roxanne Tang, and Eric Yang for volunteering your time!

Other than Madison Consolidated's upcoming appearance at the Greatest Snow on Earth and Saint Joseph's performance at Swim 'n' Win, this will conclude the fall quiz bowl semester. Looking forward, we have the Boilermaker Buzzathon, Area Championships, PANDA, and State Finals next semester! Can't wait!

My personal end-of-semester team rankings: (Ed. Jan 8: added some info about the rosters I'm imagining when I rank these teams, and re-ranked them slightly.)
1. Carmel A (Liao, Pho, Pho, Singh)
2. Park Tudor (Cheng, Hackwelder, Zaidi, Zaidi)
3. Sycamore (Kirkendall, Maun, Sigua, Ting)
4. Herron (Brown, Fox, Madrazo, Morris)
5. Carmel B (Jain, Prasad, Varigonda, Yang)
6. Culver (Foster, Lu, McClure, Mehrotra)
7. University High (Cardwell, Coutant, Fiur, Zhang)
8. Saint Joseph (Belcher, Berente, Kennedy, Thain)
9. Guerin (Griffin, Gunawan, Macey, Ryan)
10. John Adams (Camilleri, Howk, Walton)

My personal end-of-semester player rankings: (Ed. Jan 4: changed my calculus a bit because I wasn't very satisfied with the original results. New formula rewards team PPB and overall scoring over power%)
1. Evan Ting (Sycamore)
2. Sameer Zaidi (Park Tudor)
3. Anna Liao (Carmel)
4. Anthony Pho (Carmel)
5. Abram Polley (Martinsville)
6. Brian Pho (Carmel)
7. Insia Zaidi (Park Tudor)
8. Michael Camilleri (John Adams)
9. Cyrus Urheim (Bloomington North)
10. Karthik Varigonda (Carmel)
11. Sophia Madrazo (Herron)
12. Will Griffin (Guerin)
13. Audrey Gunawan (Guerin)
14. Noah Kahn (Carmel)
15. Jackson Schwartz (Madison)

[L.H.O.O.Q.]

Surprise! There was quite a bit more than I expected leading into the end of the fall semester, so we get one last post to acknowledge it.

1. The Quad County Conference Tournament
In an unexpected turn of events, the Quad County Conference, a historic Questions Unlimited circuit between Muncie and Fort Wayne, decided to run its championship tournament on NAQT TV sets. Huntington North was first in scoring by an incredible margin, but more importantly, this gives us a preview of Marion and Monroe Central, who are signed up for IASP play, as well as the King's Academy, who are signed up for the Buzzathon as well as SSNCT. Not much separated those three teams statistically, but Marion's only losses at the tournament were to the well-established HNHS Vikings, and the scoring under the QCC format was likely wonky enough that we don't have a true sense of how good they are.

2. Saint Joseph's Big Week
At Swim n' Win, Saint Joseph A belonged in top bracket, but were screwed out of it by a stingy tournament format. This team is really starting to come into its own; Teddy Berente and Thomas Belcher both put on easily their best performances yet, and Cormac Kennedy appears to be the team's intended fourth player. Their showing at this tournament substantially improved their end-of-season ranking.

The very next weekend, St. Joe rounded out the field for the Reinstein Varsity Über-Competitive Division, and were given all they could handle by the college-difficulty set ILLIAC II. Once again, Teddy led the team, scoring like he belonged at that competitive level. The team honestly deserves commendation simply for attending and competing; an experience like that can do a lot to improve a team, and it should stoke their confidence to know that they were able to play through it.

3. Honorary Kentucky Team Madison Consolidated
It really sucks that Madison Consolidated are so far away from literally any other Indiana school with a quiz bowl program, but at least they're right next to Louisville and can find tournaments to play in Kentucky. (It might be a future project of mine to do outreach in the south of the state.)

Madison was actually quite impressive at the Greatest Snow on Earth, and I think they should easily make State with the roster they have right now. Post-Sonny Koren's graduation, Jackson Schwartz and Ian Eiriksson have really emerged to lead an A team with the best bonus conversion and power percentage in the team's recorded history. Their B and C teams saw good contributions from Aaron Hanson, Avery Clayton, Alex Wang, and Annie Kempton, as well. Also keep an eye on freshman Henry Schmidt, who comes in with experience leading the Madison Junior High team at last year's IASP Junior Area Championships.

4. IASP Area Championship Sites
The Area sites have been released, aaaaand...! They're the same as last year. Let's run through a crash-course of all of those and maybe make some predictions.

Center Grove
Field: Bloomington North, Center Grove, Greenfield-Central, Herron A-B, Madison Consolidated, Martinsville, Mt. Vernon, New Castle, Park Tudor A-B*, Shelbyville
*I know the Park Tudor team signed up late, and the IASP has a track record of allowing surprise late signups, so I figure they probably got in.
This field has two extreme heavy hitters in Herron and Park Tudor, but also an unusual amount of talented teams that could make the cut and qualify. The middle of this field is going to be contentious, and fun to analyze.

Homestead
Field: Adams Central, Alexandria Monroe, Delta, Homestead, Huntington North, Indiana Academy, Marion, Monroe Central, Yorktown
Focused purely on the teams we know anything about, this appears to be Huntington North's area to lose. There are several wild cards, however, and Indiana Academy may not have been playing at full strength at the Achaean Invitational.

McCutcheon
Field: Carmel, Fishers, Guerin, Hamilton SE, McCutcheon, Noblesville, North White, Rensselaer, Tipton A-B
Beyond Carmel and Guerin, we don't know much about this field, but Fishers and Hamilton SE have very strong track records. The way this tournament shakes out probably depends a lot on the strength of McCutcheon and Noblesville, both of whom are very unpredictable year to year.

Saint Joseph
Field: Andrean, Chesterton, Crown Point, Culver, Hobart, John Adams A-B, Kouts, Marquette, Merrillville, Penn, Saint Joseph A-B, Valparaiso, Whiting
This is probably actually the most competitive area. The champion will probably be Culver... but it could easily also be John Adams, Saint Joseph, or even Andrean or Penn. And Chesterton, Crown Point, Hobart, and Valparaiso are strong enough year-in and year-out that they're candidates to go to State this year! Huge congratulations to whomever makes it out of this death-trap of an area.

Sullivan
Field: Barr-Reeve, Eastern Greene, Orleans A-B, Shakamak*, Sullivan
*I assume Shakamak being listed as going to Center Grove is a mistake; the school is only about 15 minutes from Sullivan.
I mean... this one is just a mystery. Nobody in this field has played a single game of quiz bowl all year, so there's no way for me to predict this other than based entirely on previous years. So... it'll probably be Barr-Reeve or Sullivan.

The State Championship Field
Here's my prediction for what teams make it. I'm not going to worry about seeding, because the really disparate strengths of these areas will skew that all over the place.

Auto-Bids (Area Champs + runners-up in areas with 9+ teams): Barr-Reeve, Carmel, Culver, Guerin, Herron, Huntington North, John Adams, Marion, Park Tudor
At-Large Bids (Best PPGs of remaining teams): Andrean, Fishers, Hamilton SE, Madison Consolidated, Martinsville, Penn, Saint Joseph, Sullivan, Valparaiso

That should be everything! Indiana Quiz Bowl will be quiet until the Buzzathon in mid-January. Enjoy the rest of this holiday!

[L.H.O.O.Q.]

Oof, winter season has been hitting me hard. There's a ton to go over, so I'll just cover the stuff that I feel is the most remarkable.

Duneland Academic Conference
Chesterton were the champs this year, and it wasn't really all that close! They won every game by at least 95 points, so very little question that they're the best in that region this year. Behind them were Andrean, who similarly trounced all of their non-Chesterton opposition.

Boilermaker Buzzathon VIII
Park Tudor played their full A team for the first time; they matched Sycamore exactly in PPG with better powers but worse bonus conversion. They also gave the Pho twins their first loss of the season, though that result was reversed in the final. Including Herron, four teams at the Buzzathon scored over 400 ppg in the prelims, the most the tournament has had since 2020. In the JV division, the King's Academy played their first pyramidal quiz bowl games ever, and saw a lot of success on middle school questions.

IASP Area Championships
The Center Grove area was predictably stacked, with 5 of the 11 teams qualifying for State Finals. The eternally-underranked North Central upset Herron A in the finals to win the championship. This tournament was the best performance for Center Grove, who averaged over 300 PPG, and Martinsville A, who matched North Central at 19.09 PPB; Madison Consolidated snuck into the playoffs as the 18 seed.

At Homestead, Huntington North and Indiana Academy were the clear best teams. Indiana Academy converted 11 tossups in the finals game, but lost thanks to Huntington North's superior bonus conversion. An impressive Yorktown narrowly missed State Finals qualification.

Barr-Reeve won at Sullivan, once again going undefeated among the state's southwest. In their first year of competition since 2020, Shakamak came within 5 PPG of qualifying for State, but couldn't touch the Vikings in either of their matchups.

Park Tudor A scored their second win over Carmel at the McCutcheon area, winning in convincing fashion in the finals. While not on the level of those two juggernauts, Fishers was definitively above the rest of the field, scoring a gaudy 645 points in the quarterfinals. In that same round, Park Tudor A achieved a 700-point grail against North White. Guerin, the wild card who beat Park Tudor at Kickoff, also qualified for State.

And at Saint Joseph, Culver won an extremely contentious area that qualified 6 of its 14 teams - and a 7th if John Adams B had been eligible by IASP's rules. Culver, John Adams A and B, Saint Joseph, and Chesterton were all north of 300 points per game at this area, and Penn and Andrean were strong enough to qualify as well.

State Finals Predictions
Using the IASP's rules, we can assemble the probable schedule for the state championship. The three prelim pools:
A: Carmel, North Central, Fishers, Center Grove, Barr-Reeve, Madison
B: Park Tudor, John Adams, Saint Joseph, Indiana Academy, Martinsville, Penn
C: Herron, Culver, Huntington North, Chesterton, Guerin, Andrean

Here's my prediction of how these three will sort into playoff pools:
1-6: Carmel, Park Tudor, Herron, Culver, Fishers, John Adams
7-12: Saint Joseph, North Central, Chesterton, Huntington North, Center Grove, Martinsville
13-18: Indiana Academy, Guerin, Andrean, Madison, Penn, Barr-Reeve

And the results of the top 4 placement bracket:
1. Carmel
2. Park Tudor
3. Herron
4. John Adams

Other Upcoming Tournaments
Tomorrow is PANDA, Notre Dame's mirror of Planetfall. 12 teams are attending from Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. Carmel, Culver, Huntington North, John Adams, and Saint Joseph will be put to the test against tough out-of-state teams like Cincinnati Hills and Grand Ledge.

At the end of the month is the Junior Area Championship, whose field features Sycamore A and B, then 7 other teams that haven't played any quiz bowl this year. While Sycamore are the only team with expectations (that they should have no issue meeting), most of these schools have some reason to be hopeful about their capability and their future: HSE and Madison are returning from last year; Creekside was started and likely assistant-coached by the Carmel team; and Carlisle and Sullivan each have dedicated teams for Geography Bowl, Math Bowl, and Science Bowl.

With these programs in mind, it becomes a little more interesting to think about high school quiz bowl in the near future. If all of these programs are successful, then Carmel, Hamilton Southeastern, Madison, and Sullivan can expect their teams to consistently gain freshmen that already have quiz bowl experience. Particularly for Sullivan, this can make a big difference in the team's long-term success. Additionally, we know by now that a lot of Sycamore's quiz bowlers are going to either Carmel or Park Tudor, who clearly benefit from their experience; but some have cropped up at Brebeuf, University, North Central, and Pendleton Heights as well, and hopefully they can help those programs get more involved at the state level.

On March 16th is the second Carmel Greyhound Invitational, or CGII, to be run on HFT. This should be a great, challenging event for central Indiana teams who want to prepare for nationals, or for the growing contingent of teams in Indiana who want a bigger challenge than IS. Also in this vein, keep a lookout for Purdue to host something hard in April.

My next update will probably be a retrospective of these harder tournaments and a look forward towards nationals season, which is coming up fast. Best of luck to everyone competing!

[L.H.O.O.Q.]

I think we can agree that this past Saturday was one of the most exciting, contentious state championships in recent memory. Congratulations to Carmel for extending their championship streak with a perfect 11-0 record! Considering everyone but Karthik will be back next year, it's scary to think of what's coming for this squad.

Park Tudor took second, though it was much harder-earned than it seemed like it would be; they felt the absence of sophomore Alex Cheng, and, despite a strong PPB, struggled to pull away from teams the way they did on A sets. I think this is partially because the team is so new; the players' comparative lack of experience could have contributed to their sharp drop-off with the set's difficulty, though they still managed the second-highest PPB at the tournament.

John Adams looked truly fierce with a new-look A team of Michael, Clara, Jesse, and Jonah. While their usual Adams A and B rosters were both arguably top-10 teams already, they really blasted past those expectations at state, securing the second-highest PPG and PPB at the tournament. They seem to believe (and rightfully so) that that's their best four, so hopefully we see a lot of that grouping at HSNCT!

The last ride of Culver's senior super-team of Aakrit, Teddy, and Toby was overshadowed by sophomore Albert Lu, who put up another bonkers performance. Unfortunately, it's impossible to really talk about their performance without bringing up Herron, who lost their rightful top-4 spot by a scheduling error; that spot happened to go to Culver. This does not reflect poorly on Culver; they did wonderfully, and deserve to be proud.

Herron, themselves, had an impressive balanced attack that shifted the focus away from just Sophia. With Henry now her likely peer and Arch Fox rising like a firework, the team looks scarier than ever.

The biggest surprise of the day, though, was Madison Consolidated, the 18th-seeded team whose Cinderella run into the top bracket was spearheaded by literature guru Jackson Schwartz. After battling past WRAL powerhouses Fishers, North Central, and Center Grove in the morning, they ended their state championship with an ambush win over an unsuspecting Culver.

Congrats and lots of love to all of our state competitors this year! CGII is coming up later this month, and Boilermaker Spring Challenge next month, leading into nationals season!

The Post-Season Poll

We're doing this a little earlier than last year. Why? Because I want to!

The poll can be found here. You can fill it out now, and if you change your mind, you can fill it out again - I'll just delete the old poll. Results will be tabulated after nationals season is finished. Happy voting!

[L.H.O.O.Q.]

Congrats to Teddy Berente of St. Joseph, Will Griffin of Guerin, Evan Ting of Sycamore, Zane Vatter of Huntington North, and Sameer Zaidi of Park Tudor for being accepted onto Team Indiana for NASAT!