Batavia High School Makes Playoffs at Quiz Bowl National Championship Tournament

On the weekend of Saturday, April 27, Batavia High School joined 142 of the top quiz bowl teams from small public high schools at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare Chicago for the 2024 Small School National Championship Tournament to determine who was the best.

Quiz bowl is a competitive, academic, interscholastic activity for teams of four students. Quiz bowl teams use buzzers to answer questions about science, math, history, literature, mythology, geography, social science, current events, sports, and popular culture. The matches feature a blend of individual competition and team collaboration, since no individual player is likely to be an expert in all subject areas. Participation in quiz bowl both reinforces lessons from the classroom and encourages players to develop new intellectual interests.

The team, in the Traditional Public Schools Division, consisted of Savannah Bennington, Yash Dayal, Jack Garrison, Harmon Kahl, Mahi Patel, Drew Smith, and Xavier Wagner. The team was coached by David Smith.

Batavia was one of 15 Ohio teams competing at the national championship.

Batavia finished the preliminary rounds with a 8-2 record, which qualified them for the playoffs.

There were some tense moments. Batavia suffered a heartbreakingly narrow loss to Cooperstown from New York, 260-255 during round 17.

Batavia’s shot at the title ended when they lost to Cooperstown from New York in round 17.

Jack Garrison was honored as an All-Star for correctly answering 84 tossup questions in the preliminary rounds.

Batavia High School finished in 21st place in the Traditional Public Schools Division.

The Traditional Public Schools Division champion was Hastings High School Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. The Open Division champion was the A team from St. Mark’s School of Texas Dallas, Texas.

The 2024 Small School National Championship Tournament (Traditional Public Schools Division)’s field featured 88 teams from 24 states.