2005-06 Schedule
- October
22 - SKIT Champions!! They played under assumed names of poker players, and by round eleven had made a royal flush. The team traveled to the Scarlet Knight Invitational Tournament at Rutgers, New Brunswick. The B team of Avi, Chris, Mariellen, Mi, and Raja went 7-4. The A team of Abhi, Austin, Mike, Rob, and Terry had a perfect day, at 11-0. We basically won the tournament by five points, as in Round 10 they defeated second-place Milburn 285-280. This was accomplished by overcoming an eighty-point deficit with three tossups to go.
This marks the first time the team has won a tournament outside of Delaware. The last time the team had won a tournament involving out-of-state teams was the 2nd Sanford Open, and that was a "co-champions" result tied with Howard.
29 - Another Trophy! The team made the trek to Long Island. After getting lost in New York City, we made it to Northport High and impressive results ensued:
- Christine, Lisa, Jack, Jeff, and Kyle went 3-4 in the prelims, missing the playoffs by just one win.
- Ben, Chris P. Dave, Neeraj, and Nick went 4-3 in the prelims, entered the playoffs as the 13 seed, lost that round, and won the consolation to finish tied for ninth. These would be students who placed at Charter Challenge I, and now join our team as ninth-graders.
- Claire, Chris, Mi, and Raja went 6-1 in the prelims, entered the playoffs as the 4 seed, lost that round, and won the consolation to finished tied for ninth.
- Avi, Bob, Henry, Mariellen, and Rob went 5-2 in the prelims, entered the playoffs as the 10 seed, upset the 7 seed in the first playoff, lost their quarter, and defeated Ranney A in the consolation to finish tied for fifth.
- Abhi, Austin, Mike, and Terry went 7-0 in the prelims averaging 568 points per game. Entering as the 1 seed, they won their octo-final, quarter-final, and semi-final matches. In the final, they lost to Bergen County 290-365. History could have repeated itself as with two tossups to go they were down 80. Abhi powered Ralph Ellison and they got thirty on the bonus pulling within 35. The Wabash River did them in on tossup 20, which is only fair since they won the previous week by one question.
- November:
13 - Abhi, Chris, Mike, Rob, and Mr. T went to TRASH regionals. Though the team went 2-6 in the preliminary bracket, we won all of our playoff rounds for an overall record of 6-6. Wins were scored over teams from (or formerly from) Georgetown, Maryland, Villanova, and Carnegie Mellon. On the highlight reel: Chris won a round by correctly answering tossup 20 about the Miami Sharks.
19 - The team went to Princeton University and another successful day was had.
- Avi, Mariellen, Raja, and Rob went 6-3 in the prelims. Despite impressive wins over Ranney A and New Brunswick, they just missed the playoffs. They had the right number of wins, just not the points.
- Chris B, Chris P, Henry, Mi, and Neeraj went 7-2 in the prelims, entered the playoffs as the 11 seed, upset the 6 seeded State College B in the first playoff, and lost their quarterfinal to the eventual 2nd place Millburn A.
- Abhi, Austin, Mike, and Terry went 9-0 in the prelims.
Entering as the 2 seed, they won their octo-final against White Plains A (300-205), and quarter-final against Gonzaga (300-130).
In the semi they lost to Millburn A (360-260), but took the third place game over Seton Hall A (350-220).
after three tournaments.
- December:
10 - Charter hosted the sixth annual Delaware Fall Tournament. 42 teams were in attendance, making it the largest NAQT event in Delaware history.
- The team of Chris, Henry, Neeral, and Raja finished first in JV. Raja and Henry were tied for highest JV scorers, and Neeraj was fourth. Five past Charter teams have finished second at this tournament, so it took six tries until we won the final round.
- The team of Dave, Jack, Megan, and Nick made it to the quarterfinals. Jack was third overall in scoring.
- The team of Ben, Christine, Jeff, Karen, and Lisa just missed the playoffs, and was denied that chance by Charter C. They had an impressive 305-25 win over Delcastle D. Jeff (shown as "Sailor Moon") was third overall in scoring, meaning that Charter students took all of the top five spots.
- January 2006
7 - Something had really been bugging us: What exactly is a Half Hollow Hill? To attempt to answer that question, we traveled to Dix Hills, Long Island to find out. The field had an impressive 78 teams, but the format was the unfamiliar Questions Unlimited one. This tournament wins the "longest day ever" award: doing just 8 rounds and a lunch took over 10 hours.
- Chris, Christine, Lisa, Neeraj, and Nick went 2-2 in the prelims. They had enough wins to advance, but missed out on points. Mostly, they were done in by a Seinfeld lightning round.
- Dave, Jack, Jeff, Kyle, and Meghan went 3-1 in the prelims. Much honor was earned in the Pokemon lightning round. Entering they playoffs as the 28 seed, they lost in the round of 32, and earned a trophy for doing so.
- Austin, Avi, Henry, Mariellen, and Will went 3-1 in the prelims. Entering the playoffs as the 14 seed, after defeating Port Jefferson in the round of 32, they had to play Charter A in the octo-finals and were knocked out.
- Ben, Chris, Claire, Mi, and Raja went 4-0 in the prelims. Entering the playoffs as the 4 seed, they offed Irvington B but then ran up against an underrated Seton Hall team in the octofinals. They too got a "sweet sixteen" trophy.
- Abhi, Mike, Rob, and Terry went 4-0 in the prelims. Entering as the 3 seed, they won playoff matches against Smithtown East A, Charter C, and Commack A before meeting White Plains A in the semis. Continuing the "do not watch" tradition, the team made Mr. Tressler be in the room for the semis to watch for shenanigans, so they lost. Good thing, because had they been in the final we might have got back after midnight. It was determined the semi-final trophy was approximately half the size of Avi.
Charter was the only school to advance four teams into the playoffs, and the only school to have three teams in the sweet sixteen.
14 - The team hosted the Middle School Charter Challenge II, featuring 25 teams. We look forward to having some of the participants on our team in future years.
21 - The NAQT Delaware State Championship at Salesianium. Charter teams finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th out of 16 teams.
- February
18 - Abhi, Austin, Chris, Claire, Mike, and Terry won their preliminary group in the hreComcast Academic Challenge. The road to victory:
- Round 1 versus Delmar: 280-135
- Round 2 versus Symrna: 360-90
- Winner's bracket final versus Mount Pleasant: 370-170
- Championship versus Salesianum: 405-150
25 - Charter Academic Bowl wins its fourth consecutive Comcast Academic Challenge:
- Semis versus Saint Marks: 400-300
- Final versus Salesianum: 275-230
- Championship versus Salesianum: 320-215
There's was a News Journal article about the day's competition. Since we spent most of the day in the break room playing poker, the reporter didn't bother to interview any of us. In response, there were several letters to the editor criticizing the article and the reporter.
Charter has now won 25 consecutive matches in this competition.
- March
11- Another Charter milestone occurred when the team traveled to Elizabethtown as this was our first Pennsylvania tournament.
- Charter D (Dave, Ben, Will, Jack) went 6-5 for 9th overall.
- Charter E (Neeraj, Chris, Lisa, Christine) went 7-4 for 8th overall. They just missed the top bracket losing a 10-tossup tiebreaker.
- Charter C (Bob, Mi, Nick, Rob) went 6-5, made the top bracket, and finished 6th overall
- Charter B (Chris, Mariellen, Avi, Henry) went 9-2 with losses to Penn Manor and Charter A. Since they have the head-to-head (and points) over Conestoga, they finished 2nd overall.
- Charter A (Abhi, Terry, Mike) went 11-0 and won the tournament.
18 - It's a rule that every time Charter A makes the final of the The University of Delaware's Blue Hen, they lose. Tradition was upheld this year, when Charter A (7-2) lost the final for the fourth time. What was different about this year was that the other participant in the final was Charter B (7-2).
Chris, Claire, Henry, and Mariellen will forever remain in team history as the first group to win a Blue Hen (and it took 8 years). During this match, the lead changed hands eight times. After 14 tossups, team A led 205-150. But then the B team coverted the next five tossups and score ended 320-235.
Not to be outdone, Charter C was 5-0 before losing to Gonzaga in the last prelim. They got their revenge in the third place game, causing first seeded Gonzaga to finish fourth. Charter D also made the quarterfinals, finishing sixth overall out of 25 teams.
The trophy case more or less exploded this year. The team ends its regular season having taken six first places, four second places, and four third places. Tournaments featured us taking the top two spots (Elizabethtown), the top three spots (Blue Hen) and the top five places (Salesianum). The A team finishes with a record of 71-6, or 65-4 if you exclude matches with other Charter teams. The B team finishes with a record of 47-15, or 42-13 if you exclude intramurals.
- May
The team began a new tradition by holding an Intramural Tournament. The team of Chris, Neeraj, Henry, and Dave swept the event. We hope to hold similar event each December and May to encourage alumni to come back and visit.
- Nationals
May 27: Abhi, Austin, Chris, Claire, Mike, and Terry compete at Questions Unlimited in San Antonio. With an overall record of 6-3, the team advanced into the final four of San Antonio, and was eliminated by the eventual national champion. This ranked us 11th out of 101 teams. Chip complemented the team by stating it was the best finish ever by a Delaware team.
June 1: Both the A and B teams competed at NAQT nationals.
- The "A" team of Abhi, Austin, Chris, Mike, and Terry became the first Charter team to post a 7-3 record on Saturday, being seeded 14th. Oddly enough, they finished 14th after Sunday's prelims as well. Four of the team's five losses were by less than fifty points, including the heartbreaker against Shady Side that knocked them out.
The "B" team of Avi, Henry, Mariellen, Mi, Raja, and Rob went 6-4 on Saturday and was seeded 26th. They won their first four matches, including a win over Thomas Jefferson A that snapped TJ's 40-game winning streak at nationals that had lasted since Myrtle Beach in 2003. On Sunday, the team earned one win against Moravian before being eliminated, for a final finish of 25th.