Chipola College Wins Back-to-Back Quiz Bowl National Championships

On Saturday, March 1, the team from Chipola College of Marianna, Florida won the 2025 NAQT Community College Championship Tournament, to win back-to-back national championships.  Chipola defeated the A team of Murray State University of Tishomingo, Oklahoma in an advantaged final.   Chipola won the only match of the final, 370-200, to complete an undefeated run through the field and win the tournament.   This was Chipola's fifth CCCT championship, and sets up the possibility of their second three-year run in 2026.  Chipola won the 2011, 2012, and 2013 championship, as well as last year's competition.

The A team of Murray State College of Tishomingo, Oklahoma finished second with a record of 10-2.  The A team of Valencia College of Orlando, Florida finished third at 9-2.  Murray State's B team finished fourth with a 8-3 record.
 
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 24 teams competed in four pools of six and then the top teams were placed in a championship pool of eight, and played round robin matches against the other teams in the championship pool.  

Chipola was led in scoring by Captain Devin Tharp, whose 50.00 scoring average placed seventh in the field and on the All-Star team for the tournament.  Sophomore John Maupin also placed on the All-Star team with a 35.61 scoring average.  Sophomore Cade Foxworth, and freshman Jeremy Scurlock both finished in the top 20 in scoring, aiding Chipola's balanced attack.

The leading scorer for the tournament was Dalton Stults of Northwest-Shoals Community College of Alabama, who had a scoring average of 83.96.

Since 2002, NAQT has awarded a championship for the top Community College quiz bowl team.  After their performance on Saturday, the top three teams from the Community College Championship will play again in April in Chicago at the NAQT Intercollegiate Championship Tournament.  Those squads will join 60 four-year colleges and universities in competing for the championship.  

The full results of the tournament are available at https://www.naqt.com/stats/tournament/standings.jsp?tournament_id=16003