CHIPOLA BRAIN BOWL IS BEST IN STATE AND NATION

    MARIANNA—The Chipola College Brain Bowl team won Florida College System Activities Association Brain Bowl State Tournament on March 24 and finished as the top two-year college in Chicago at the National Academic Quiz Tournament (NAQT) Four-Year College Tournament on March 31.
For the second year in a row, Chipola placed ninth overall in the 32-team NAQT field of the best teams in the USA and Canada.
Chipola Brain Bowl Team members who played in the national tournament are: Travis Bontrager, Paul Kelson, Annemarie Nichols and Caroline Peacock. They are coached by mathematics professor Stan Young and volunteer, Dr. Robert Dunkle.

    Chipola also recorded the second highest finish by a two-year college in tournament history. Chipola was one of only six two-year colleges in the nation to qualify for the tournament and did so by going undefeated in the two-year college national tournament in February to win its second consecutive two-year college national championship.

    Chipola’s 11-2 record, the second highest percentage record in the four-year college tournament behind Harvard, included impressive wins over teams from Carnegie Mellon, University of Chicago, Notre Dame, Maryland, Minnesota, and Toronto. Chipola’s only two losses in the tournament were to Harvard, the eventual champion, and Delaware.

    Chipola’s Paul Kelson was the top scorer among all players in the 32-team field. He answered 131 tossups, with 52 powers. Powers are awarded when a player answers a question early to earn 15 points instead of the 10 points normally awarded for a correct answer. Kelson averaged 81.48 points per game, the highest average among both all Division I teams (including graduate students) and Division II teams (only undergraduate students). Kelson is a freshman and will be eligible, should the Chipola team qualify next year, to play in both the two-year and four-year college national tournaments. Link to NAQT statistics are available at: www.naqt.com/stats/tournament-teams.jsp?tournament_id=3872&playoffs=1

    Chipola won the Florida College System Activities Association Brain Bowl State Tournament on March 24 in Orlando finishing the tournament with a big 825-275 win over Valencia Red.

    The state championship is Chipola’s fifth in a row tying Broward as the only other Florida team to win five straight state titles. Chipola Brain Bowl Team members who played in the state tournament are: Travis Bontrager, Paul Kelson, Annemarie Nichols, Caroline Peacock and Adrian Carr.

    Chipola’s Paul Kelson was the Dave Ehlert High Point Award winner in the tournament with 1145 points. Kelson was named to the All Star Team for the tournament along with Travis Bontrager (Chipola, 355 points).

    Chipola swept all three major awards in the state tournament including championship team, high point player and Coach of the Year. Dr. Robert Dunkle, a volunteer assistant coach for the Chipola team, was selected by his fellow coaches to receive the Roger Raepple Coach of the Year award.
Chipola Brain Bowl alumni Dallin Kelson and Ethan Hewitt served as readers for the state tournament. Results from the state tournament are available at http://thefcsaa.com/brain-bowl2