Ball State University's College Bowl team finished fifth out of 10 this weekend at the Regional Championship Tournament at the University of Illinois in Urbana. Team captain Steve Nawara, a senior, said Ball State was tied for fourth with Wabash College but lost the position in a tie-breaker.
Ball State senior Luke Harris said the team was not as prepared for the competition as some of the other teams. The group from the University of Illinois won the regional bowl because it practiced regularly, he said.
"Some of the teams practice year-round," Harris said. "We don't. The top team was like a million times better than everybody else. One of the guys on the team had a binder and we didn't even know what the stuff in the binder meant. The teams that were ahead of us were just really good."
Nawara said Ball State's regional team, which consists of five players, was chosen from the top scorers at a campus-wide competition held in the fall.
Harris said he tended to answer questions about sports and history, while teammate Kevin Fitzgerald knew the most about science. Team member and Student Government Association president Steve Geraci focused on entertainment questions, and Nawara helped out with politics and history.
"What you generally try to do is get players that are good in different areas because the questions are so broad," said Janice Altland, an advisor in charge of the Ball State College Bowl. "It's kind of like a toss up." Harris said he was pleased with his team's performance, despite the fact that it failed to take the top spot.
"We beat Purdue and IUPUI," he said. "We beat some of the bigger schools. We did pretty well."
Nawara said the team left for Urbana Friday afternoon and competed in four matches that night, followed by five matches Saturday morning. The team ended the tournament with a five and four record, Nawara said.
"We improved a lot from last year," he said.
The 2005 team was the first Ball State had sent to a College Bowl competition in several years, and the group only won two or three games at regional competition, Nawara said.
Nawara said this was the second time he has participated in the College Bowl competitions, and both times he made it to regionals.
"It's fun, like a game show," he said. "It's like playing along with 'Jeopardy.' I won't be doing it next year because I'm graduating. It will be something I'll probably miss."
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