Five students pocketed at least $50 each and won a trip to the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, after placing as the high scorers in the annual Ball State College Bowl Tournament.
The top scorers were Steve Nawara, with 325 points from the University Democrats team, Jay Rigdon with 225 points from the Angry Cronkites team, Kevin Fitzgerald with 135 points and Steve Geraci with 110 points from the Student Government Association team and Luke Harris with 105 points from the College Republicans team.
All five will travel as a team to the regional competition Feb. 18-19 at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The fifth team member will serve as an alternate.
Winning teams also received cash prizes, but will not move on. The University Democrats team placed first with 275 points in the final round and won $200, and the SGA team placed second with 155 points and won $100. Geraci, president of SGA, said by the final round everyone was tired, but still having fun.
"Everyone's spirits were pretty high," Geraci said. "First and second places were both getting money, so we weren't really upset about missing a question or something like that."
Although the five top point earners come from several teams, Nawara said he did not think it will be a problem and he hoped it would increase the competitiveness of the overall competition.
"That's a long way off," Nawara said. "It's not until February, and we should have plenty of time to coordinate our team."
This is the second year for the program since its return to Ball State. Program Coordinator Janice Altland said UPB held it twice back in the late 1980s but became disinterested.
This year only 16 teams participated, down from 24 last year. Altland blames moving the tournament to earlier in the year for the decrease in interest. She also said some students thought it was a bowling tournament.
Nawara was on the winning team last year as well and said experience helped him this year, especially when dealing with the buzzer.
"Working with the buzzer system has some skill involved with it," Nawara said. "You have to ring in right away instead of waiting for the question to be asked."
Along with a lack of returning teams, Altland said she had trouble finding volunteers. Last year the program had additional funding and was able to give money to organizations who volunteered.
As it is an educational game, Altland said she hoped to involve more faculty and staff in the tournament in the future.
"I think every year we will get a little better at it, and it will run like clockwork," Altland said. "I would like to get more faculty involved. It is an educational game and faculty should support it, coach it, inspire their students."
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