We made the final 8 at Penn Bowl for the second consecutive year, and gave Virginia a run for their money in the quarterfinals. Penn redeemed itself this year by running an enjoyable and well-planned tournament.

We lost to Pitt in the playoffs, so we won't be going to Manhattan, KS for CBI Nats this year. We were quite peeved about having to take 2 forfeits on Friday evening, but they didn't really matter in the end. Special thanks to our advisor Joan Mitchell for putting up with us throughout the weekend; no special thanks to Pitt catering for Satuday's luncheon, a teutonically-inspired cholesterol fest of Wagnerian proportion.

March 24: Craig "Ironhead" Hayward Invitational II at the University of Pittsburgh
Trash tournament - we played as "Andrew Ridgeley's Sports Machine"
Record: 3-7 in round robin (no playoffs)
Team:
Edmund "L.C. Sanchez" Schluessel (2-22-6, 22.0 ppg, #14 scorer)
Tricia "Apollo Yoko Ono" Southard (0-4-1, 3.5 ppg, #35 scorer)
Jon "Michael Wilbon" Needle (1-25-3, 25.0 ppg, #13 scorer)
Andrew "Fawn Bobo Leibowitz" Wiseman (1-16-6, 14.5 ppg, #19 scorer)

We headed to the Iron City for a weekend of stiff competition -- Omar Bongo was without question one of the 3 toughest academic tournaments we've attended all year, and Ironhead featured a small, but rather brutal field. Tim emerged from semi-retirement and helped us avoid being completely obliterated in Saturday's tournament; mercifully, 10 rounds of trash questions the following day were able to lift our spirits.  Best wrong answer: "The Kreutzer Sonata," by Leo Tolstoy, where the correct answer was actually "A Mother's Gift," by Lynne and Britney Spears. Sadly, it was a bonus part.

We weren't expecting a Nationals bid this year, so our mere presence at UNC was enough to keep us satisfied -- and wins were just gravy. This was our first NAQT division I bid since 1999, but we had to make do with just a 3-person team. On the bright side, Edmund won a scoring prize and we competed against a British team for the first time.