Catholic Central wins quiz bowl High School National Championship Tournament

NOVI — The Detroit Catholic Central High School academic team took home the High School National Championship Tournament title from National Academic Quiz Tournaments in Atlanta May 27-29.

This marks the fifth time the school has won the NAQT High School National Championship Tournament, according to a school press release. Catholic Central has been participating in the tournament since it was founded in 1999 and was its first champion.

The annual event is held at the end of each school year and features top quiz bowl teams from across the country and the world, according to the NAQT website. According to the site, the event is “NAQT’s premier high school event.”

“DCC is the only school in the country to have qualified for and competed in every HSNCT,” Chris Gismondi, a Detroit Catholic Central English teacher and one of the academic team coaches, said via email.

Five Catholic Central academic teams competed throughout the weekend at the tournament held at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis and Hilton Atlanta. Each team consists of four students with a buzzer to ring in with the answer to a question. Questions in the quiz bowl tournament covered a range of academic, current events and popular culture subjects.

The varsity A team, which consisted of seniors Drew Laroo, Liam Cross and Michael Yousif, and junior Will Carstens, qualified for the double-elimination playoff tournament by finishing the preliminary matches with an 8-2 record, including wins over Illinois’ Adlai Stevenson High School, ranked 46th; Missouri’s Ladue High School, ranked 43rd; Illinois Math and Science Academy, ranked 18th; and Ohio’s Beavercreek High School, ranked 19th.

The varsity A team won in an overtime game during the playoffs against No. 31 Cinco Ranch High School from Texas and again won on the last question against No. 8 Carmel High School from Indiana, said Gismondi.

After suffering a setback against East Chapel Hill High School from North Carolina, the team rebounded with a last-question win against No. 1 Arcadia High School from California, with co-captain Cross clinching all three wins on the deciding question, Gismondi said. That win over Arcadia secured a position in the semifinals and a rematch against East Chapel Hill, which Detroit Catholic Central won 455-230. This qualified the team for a position in the finals.

The varsity A team then faced No. 3 Hunter High School from New York in what was a rematch of the 2017 HSNCT finals, Gismondi said.

CC, by virtue of having one loss in the playoffs to Hunter’s flawless performance, needed to win two games to claim the championship. The A team won the first game decisively with a score of 470-275. The second game was an intense back-and-forth game, according to the release. With one minute left on the clock, co-captain Laroo answered correctly and put the game out of reach 380-295 to secure the program’s national championship win, Gismondi said.

“This group had been working together in earnest since they were freshmen. We had high hopes and high expectations of them. For them to come together and win a national championship was exciting, thrilling, and relieving for all of them,” said Gismondi. “They have sacrificed time away from other after-school activities, time away from friends, and time away from family to dedicate themselves to the pursuit of knowledge, and they were rewarded for their dedication. It is mentally taxing to focus and listen to over 1,000 different questions in a two-day time period, and for them to come out on top after a rigorous tournament, season and four years of competitions is a testament to their character, perseverance and hard work.”