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    Chaska Academic Teams 

Chaska High School, Chaska, Minnesota

Knowledge Bowl and Quiz Bowl

 

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News

 

Knowledge Bowl State Meet

Wednesday-Thursday April 22-23; Cragun's Resort in Brainerd

Cragun's Resort in Brainerd hosted the Minnesota Knowledge Bowl State Meet on April 22-23, 2009.  Forty eight teams of high school students gathered representing the best of over 800 teams that started the season.  Through 295 questions, Chaska High School's team built a lead and steadily increased it every round to win the championship of the AA (large schools) division.  Sam Peterson, Jordan Hiller, Scott Miller, Trevor Vossberg, and alternate Kevin Huls outscored their opponents by 23 points--the second largest margin in State Meet history.  This state championship crowns a very successful year in which the team won 9 of their 10 meets--usually with commanding leads.  This is Chaska's sixth state championship, last winning in 2003, and also marks the 18th consecutive year with a top-6 finish.  The team is coached by CHS teachers Chris Lenius and Krista Hammann.

Results      (Small schools results)

 

Weekend of Quiz Bowl Mirror Tournament

Saturday, March 28; University of Minnesota

Story coming.

Results

 

 

Metro Regional Meet

Thursday, March 5; North High School

Story coming.

 

Metro Subregional Meet

Tuesday, March 3; Chaska High School

Story coming.

 

The Jan Baker Invitational Knowledge Bowl Tournament

Saturday, February 28; Chaska High School

For the 17th straight year, Chaska High School hosted teams from throughout the state, and we were honored to have Knowledge Bowl pioneer and former Chaska coach Jan Baker with as the reader in the top varsity room.  Continuing Jan's tradition of pushing to improve the quality of the activity, we piloted varstiy division questions from NAQT to try to move away from the trick or low-quality questions that have unfortunately worked their way into Knoweldge Bowl at times.

Chaska teams were again successful, with Pioneer Ridge Chartreuse winning the Junior Varsity division and Chaska Aquamarine, Emerald, and Crimson right behind.  In the Varsity division, Chaska Gold continued their streak by taking first place, followed by Chaska Purple in second.

Results for Varsity and Junior Varstiy - Middle School divisions

 

 

SAVANT (Quiz Bowl)

Saturday, January 21; St. Anthony Village

Chaska had another good tournament with three of our four teams qualifying for the playoffs and the fourth missing it by one place.  Chaska B won a playoff game and ended the day in firth place, while Chaska A beat everybody by quite a bit on their way to a narrow and exciting championship match where they defeated Eden Prairie.

Results

 

Minnesota High School Quiz Bowl: Playoffs

Thursday, February 19; Burnsville

Chaska Wins Minnesota High School Quiz Bowl Championship! 

Sam Peterson (12), Jordan Hiller (11), Scott Miller (12), and Trevor Vossberg (11) qualified for the playoffs by posting a 12-0 regular season in their division between October and January.  The playoffs are a dangerous single-elimination playoff bracket, but Chaska marched through by beating Blake (690-340), De La Salle (515-295), and St. Louis Park (550-390) to set up a final match against cross-town rivals and two-time defending champions: Eden Prairie.

In the championship match, Chaska climbed first, answering 17 of the 23 questions in the first half for 355 points, compared to Eden Prairie's 4 questions for 120 points.  After trading points in the third quarter (Lightning Round), Chaska held a 435-200 lead with 8 questions remaining.  But the experienced players from EP never gave up, charging forward and scoring on six straight questions to make it a 40 point match with two questions to go.  But Chaska's tennis expert, Trevor, was able to break the incredible momentum by correctly answered a question about the Australian Open, sealing the match for the Hawks.  The final score was Chaska 480, EP 430.

For coming out on top of Minnesota High School Quiz Bowl's 100 teams from 39 high schools, took home a giant trophy and a free registration to the NAQT High School National Championship Tournament in May in Chicago, valued at over $500.

This marks Chaska seventh MNHSQB championship, the last being in 2004.  The team is coached by CHS teachers Chris Lenius and Krista Hammann.

Full results will be linked to when available.

 

Metro Knowledge Bowl: Round 3

Tuesday, February 17; Chaska

Our third home meet of the season again went well.  Chaska Gold set a new season-high by building a 50.5 point lead. Chaska Purple, Yellow, and Orange also placed top 10.

Results

 

EPITHET (Quiz Bowl)

Saturday, January 14; Eden Prairie

There's no better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with the love of our lives--Quiz Bowl.  Chaska A won every match by quite a bit (the closest being 490-65 against Monds Park Academy) and Chaska B came one question away from taking second place due to a 190-205 loss to Minneapolis South.  Chaska C and D finished in the middle of the pack, ahead of the A teams from quite a few schools.

Results

 

Metro Knowledge Bowl: Round 2

Tuesday, February 10; Chaska

We again hosted teams from around the metro area, and again our home teams did well.  Chaska Gold held off St. Anthony's strong team to win the meet as Chaska Purple and Chaska Orange finished in the top 10.

Results

 

Lucky Lindy Invitational (Knowledge Bowl)

Saturday, February 7; Little Falls

An early morning bus ride brought 12 teams of Chaska Knowledge Bowl students to the birthplace of Charles Lindberg, Little Falls.  It was good to compete against some of the state's stronger teams, including Prior Lake, Glencoe-Silver Lake, Hibbing, and Brainerd.  In the varsity division, Chaska took five of the top 11 places, including the championship.  The 9-10th graders playing in JV were equally successful, taking first, second, and fourth places.

Results for Varsity and JV

 

Lake Conference Tournament (Quiz Bowl)

Saturday, January 30; Burnsville

In a fast-paced round-robin tournament, each team played 15 rounds of 20 tossup questions each.  At the end of the morning, Chaska A (Sam Peterson, Matt Hart, Jordan Hiller, Trevor Vossberg) was undefeated and therefore declared the Lake Conference Champions.  Eden Prairie, last year's champion, was the runner up.

 

Academic World Quest

Friday, January 30; University of Minnesota

Chaska brought two teams to the Academic World Quest at the U of M, sponsored by the Minnesota International Center. Students had been preparing for the past month by following international news, memorizing world capitals and flags, and studying world geography.  After four hours of competing against around 34 other teams, one of the Chaska teams (Jordan Hiller, Monica Jacobs, Sean Mussack, and Christine Nygren) ended up with 52 points and sixth place overall.  The champions, with 62 points and a 7 point lead over their nearest rivals, were the other Chaska team (Scott Miller, Sam Peterson, Trevor Vossberg, and Mitch Williams).  As state champions, this team won a free trip to Washington, D.C. in April to compete in the national version of World Quest. Chaska won Minnesota’s first Academic World Quest competition last spring, and is excited to return to Nationals.

Results

 

Metro Knowledge Bowl: Round 1

Tuesday, January 20; Chaska

This season Chaska High School is one of the three host sites for Metro Knowledge Bowl.  We're proud to show off our building and happy to make it easier for parents to drop by and see what their kids spend so much time and energy doing.  These are the meets that eventually decide which teams advance to the State Meet, so are among our most important of the season.  All varsity (11-12th graders) participate, but only one team each from 10th and 9th grades.

Chaska Gold won, with Chaska Purple and Chaska Yellow also in the top 10.

Results

 

TOMCAT (Quiz Bowl)

Saturday, January 17; Macalester College

Chaska teams enjoyed the unique format of this tournament: all short toss-up questions (no bonuses).  Chaska C lost some very close games and won some blowouts, but theif 2-4 record didn't qualify them for the playoffs.  Chaska B played impressive preliminary rounds, bringing their 5-2 record into the playoffs where they won two matches but lost to St. Thomas Academy A in the third round.  Chaska A more than doubled the score of all of their opponents (usually tripling and sometimes quintupling) setting up the championship match against Eden Prairie A.  The Eagles sought to avenge their earlier 185-400 loss to the Hawks, and going into the final question Eden Prairie held a 5 point lead.  But Scott Miller's quick buzz brought Chaska 25 points and the championship, ending one of the most exciting rounds of the season. 

Results

 

Minnesota High School Quiz Bowl: Round 3

Thursday, January 15; Minnetonka

This meet concluded the regular season of league play, with Chaska A undefeated at 12-0.  Chaska B finished with an 8-4 record good enough for sixth place in the league's toughest division.  Chaska C and D both had successful seasons, ended with 6-6 records.

Results

 

Hibing David Heritage Memorial Tournament (Knowledge Bowl)

Saturday, January 10; Hibbing

We boarded a bus in Chaska after lunch on Friday January 9 and made the very long drive to the Iron Range to face-off against the best of northern Minnesota.   After a dinner at Grandma's Restaurant in Virginia, MN and the night at our hotel in Hibbing, we arrived at Hibbing High School.  The school's architecture is one of the highlights of this weekend, but the competition went well too.  Our 10th grade team Chaska Pink dominated the JV division, winning by 35 points. In varsity, Chaska Purple and Yellow placed 3rd and 4th, while Chaska Gold , ending the day with 45 points more than their nearest competition.

Results for Varsity and JV

 

Polar Invite (Knowledge Bowl)

Saturday, December 6; North St. Paul

For the first time in anyone's memory, Chaska competed in a Knowledge Bowl tournament that began less than 12 hours after finishing another tournament.  We again brought 15 teams, but on little rest the Hawks were even more successful.  Chaska Gold won again, this time remaining in first place for the entire meet with no other team coming closer than eight points.  Teams from Chaska took 7 of the top 14 places, ending the opening weekend with a great glimpse of the successes to come over the next few months.

Results

 

Battle of the Saints and Sinners (Knowledge Bowl)

Friday, December 5; St. Anthony Village

In our first Knowledge Bowl action of the season Chaska brought 15 teams (over 60 kids on two busses) to St. Anthony for a rare Friday-night event.  There were too many teams for me to type each name, but some highlights were Chaska Red (Jake Pullis, Zach Franz, Marty Henderson, Quinn Hiller, Sean Stelton) winning their division, Chaska Green (Laurel Paul, Kate Anderson, Charlie Busalacchi, Yvonne Ky, Sidney Ryan) winning the Excellence in Science award, Chaska Ebony (sophomores) winning the prestigious Spirit Award, and Chaska Gold (Sam Peterson, Jordan Hiller, Scott Miller, Trevor Vossberg) battling with the home team from St. Anthony to the very last question and ending up ahead by a single point.

Full results

 

Gopher Invitational (Quiz Bowl)

Saturday, December 6; University of Minnesota

Four Chaska teams spent a cold winter day on the west bank of the University of Minnesota.  In this tournament, the 36 teams were placed into six divisions for preliminary play, and after a lunch break, were grouped with teams of similar ability for the afternoon rounds.  Chaska A (Sam Peterson, Matt Hart, Scott Miller, Trevor Vossberg) went 5-0 while Chaska B (Sean Mussack, Marissa Crannell, Monica Jacobs, Steven Wetterlin) went 4-1 to both make the top 16 playoffs.  Chaska C (Kevin Huls, Quinn Hiller, George Li, Austin Wilder) and Chaska D (Julie Betker, Alex Hron, Sydney Ryan, Mitch Williams) were less experienced so didn't do as well in the morning, but both had successful afternoon matches when paired with more similar teams.  Chaska B faced some tough competition in the playoff and finished with a _____ overall record and in ___ place.  Chaska A beat all of their competition except for a close loss to St. Paul Central's tallented foursome in the sixth playoff round.  But because Central had lost to Wayzata, and Wayzata had lost to Chaska, a circle of death had to be resolved by Wayzata besting Central in a 10-question runoff and Chaska then topping Wayzata in another 10 questions.  This set up the final match in the auditorium of Blegan Hall, where Chaska A finished it's day by defeating Minnetonka A 385-85.

Results for prelim and playoffs

 

Minnesota High School Quiz Bowl: Round 2

Thursday, November 20; Minnetonka

The second of three nights of league action again went well.  Chaska A (Sam Peterson, Jordan Hiller, Scott Miller, Trevor Vossberg) had a much tougher schedule than last month yet remained undefeated by taking down Minnetonka A and Eden Prairie's A-C teams, all by over 200 points.  Chaska B (Matt Hart, Marissa Crannell, Christine Nygren, Steven Wetterlin) also won all four matches, none of which were really close.  Chaska C (Kevin Huls, Julie Betker, George Li, Austin Wilder) had a very tough schedule, having to face school's A teams in two of their four matches.  They didn't win, but came within a question against St. Louis Park C.  Chaska D (Jake Pullis, Alex Hron, Sydney Ryan, Mitch Williams) overcame their inexperience to win two matches and come close in a third.

Results

 

SOCIAL (Quiz Bowl)

Saturday, October 25; St. Olaf College

The ACT and practice for the musical kept much of our quiz bowl players off of the bus, but the five that did go had quite a day.  Without an obvious way to make two teams from five players, we decided to experiment around with the team arrangement for this early-season invitational.  One team would consists of Matt Hart, Jordan Hiller, Scott Miller, and Christine Nygren, while the other would consist of just Sam Peterson.  We flipped a coin and Sam won the right to the Chaska A name.

Early action was successful as both teams won the first four of six preliminary matches.  Included in these was a game where Chaska B trailed Eden Prairie B 55-200 at halftime, but they went on an amazing streak to win 345-195.  This was one of the most dominating comebacks in recent memory.

After winning those first four matches with an average score of 456-93, Sam faced tallented Minnetonka A and Eden Prairie A teams and lost to each while Chaska B lost to Minnetonka B.  But a 5-1 record was good enough to earn Chaska B the #4 playoff seed and at 4-2 Chaska A was seeded #9.

The first playoff round gave Sam another chance against Eden Prairie A and this time he came out on top 325-175 and then defeated the only 6-0 preliminary team, St. Paul Central, 405-205.  Chaska B bested Minnetonka C (305-90) and again beat Eden Prairie B (255-205).  This set up a quarter final match between the Chaska squads.

The match started out close, with Chaska B leading 120-20 at one point.  But Sam didn't take it easy on his teammates and went on a scoring streak that ended the game with Chaska A on top, 365-190.  Team B lost the 3rd place match to St. Anthony A (310-220).  Chaska A's championship match pitted Sam against Minnetonka A and provided another chance to reverse a previous loss.  Tonka had a great start, building a 205-70 halftime lead.  Chaska A, with that trademark second-half power, stormed back and outscored Minnetonka A 200-75 in the second half.  But if you've done your math right, you'll see that it was just barely too little, with Minnetonka hanging on to the lead and winning the championship 280-270.

Although the championship trophy left on another bus, we were proud to take home two of the top four places as well as great expectations for this young season.

Commentary from the tournament director     Results

 

Minnesota High School Quiz Bowl: Round 1

Thursday, October 1; Minnetonka

The first of our "regular season" quiz bowl meets found all four Chaska teams playing shorthanded due to conflicts with sports and theater.  Four players rushed to the meet straight from the Sectional cross country meet (where Chaska runners won all four team championships).

Chaska A (Sam Peterson, Jordan Hiller, Trevor Vossberg) dominated in all four of their matches, winning by an average score of 590-131.  Chaska B (Matt Hart, Marissa Crannell, Christine Nygren, Steven Wetterlin) played an extremly tough schedule but still managed a 2-2 record.  Chaska C (Kevin Huls, George Li, Scott Miller) won two matches by Orono's forfeits and another by outscoring Minnetonka B to end the night 3-1.  Chaska D (Sean Mussack, Alex Hron, Mitch Williams) also picked up a win by forfeit and crushed St. Louis Park C on their way to a 2-2 finish.

Results  While team performance is monumnetally more important to us than individual statistics, it's exciting that three of the league's top four scorers are from Chaska.

 

Ubu Roi Season Opener (Quiz Bowl)

Saturday, October 11; University of Minnesota

Chaska A, consisting of Sam Peterson, Jordan Hiller, Scott Miller, and Trevor Vossberg, won all eight of their matches to win their first tournament of the season.  Eden Prairie (6-2) and Minnetonka (6-2) also finished in top places, but Chaska beat both teams in 410-170 and 495-110 games during the tournament.  The Hawks' 425 points per game was also the best of the 12 teams in attendance.

Chaska B (Monica Jacobs, Matt Hart, Sean Mussack, and Christine Nygren) went 4-4 in a strong outing, with two of those losses coming with less than a one-question differential.

Thanks to CHS alumni Rob Carson and Lauren Johnson who moderated matches and Andrew Hart for acting as tournament director.

Results