Harrison Makes It One for the History Books

In 2002, Andrean High School appeared to have set a record that would never be matched in Indiana Quiz Bowl history. They won their fourth state championship and third in a row.

Fast forward five years. Now it's Lafayette Harrison who "calls the shots" in Indiana. They equaled Andrean's record of four championships and three-peating, and they even defeated Andrean in the final to do it.

To say that, though, wouldn't do justice to the fierce competition that preceded the finals. There were fourteen other teams beating each other senseless for a shot at Harrison.

Round 1 was marked by two remarkable events: no games were any closer than 75 points (St. Joseph's beat Andrean by that amount, and the next closest margin of victory was 150 points); and Harrison posted 545 points in their win over Marion (breaking their own record of 505 points in a game).

Since the teams had their feet wet, Round 2 was a different story. Harrison had their closest call of the day against South Bend Adams, 285-245. Hamilton Southeastern, who did have an upset of Harrison earlier in the year at Cardinal Quiz Bowl, put a hurt on St. Joe, 260-225. South Bend Washington came off their bye game with a sharp win over Brownsburg, 285-260. And in the closest match of the tournament, Mishawaka Marian nipped Culver Academies in overtime, 205-200.

This set up several showdown matches in Round 3 to get to the playoffs. Because only half the field would make the afternoon, the four undefeated teams (Harrison, Hamilton SE, Marian, and Washington) were in. Eight other teams with one loss, however, had to fight for the remaining spots. Andrean notched a spot by a comfortable margin; Chesterton, St. Joseph's, and Brownsburg, however, had to squeeze out wins over terrific teams to advance. In particular, St. Joe had to beat league nemesis Adams, and Brownsburg won by 10 over Culver Academies, making it a very rough day for the Dogfight runnerup.

The playoffs were a tour de force for Harrison, as they dispatched three Catholic schools to claim the championship. They recorded 500 points against Marian in the quarterfinals, 355 against St. Joe in the semifinals, and 430 points in the final against Andrean. In the other half of the draw as Harrison, Washington hoped to improve on their second-place finish last year, but Andrean passed them in the sixty-second round to earn the spot in the final.

This was the highest-scoring state championship ever, with an everage of 265 points per team per game, and with eight teams averaging more than 250 points per game (two of them, Adams and Culver Academies, getting nosed out for the playoffs).