University of Illinois Lab

University of Illinois Laboratory High School
Location: Urbana, IL
Club Presidents	Tim Cho
Coaches	Chris Butler, Brad McLain, UIUC ABT
State Championships	2015 IHSA (A) 2018 NAQT 2018 Masonic (AA)
National Appearances	MSNCT: 2018 HSNCT: 2014, 2015, 2018 SSNCT: 2018 NSC: 2016, 2017
Program Status	Active
School Size	325 students, 20-25 on A, B, and C Teams
NAQT Page	link

Not to be confused with Normal University High School or University of Chicago Laboratory School

University of Illinois Laboratory High School, or "Uni", is a university-funded lab school on the University of Illinois campus in Urbana. It includes a composite year for 7th and 8th grades alongside the standard four years of high school. As a result, Uni's quiz bowl program includes both a middle school team and a high school team. Uni's quiz bowl teams are directly affiliated with the University of Illinois Academic Buzzer Team, with the latter often providing staff for high school tournaments that Uni attends or hosts.

History

The Uni High Scholastic Bowl team first entered the local quiz bowl circuit in 2013 and has since expanded to include a B team and a C team, with about 20 active members on all teams. The team is coached by history teacher John Butler and Brad McLain of the University of Illinois. Although the school is known "Uni High" throughout the Champaign-Urbana area, teams from other parts of the state tend to refer to it as "Uni Lab", "Urbana U-High", or "University Lab School".

In 2015, Uni won the Class A IHSA State Championship. Because of the IHSA's success factor policies, Uni was moved up to class AA because it is a selective-admissions school, despite having only 320 students. The team placed second at the 2017 class AA tournament, losing to IMSA 500-320 in the championship round after beating Carbondale, Auburn, and OPRF.

In 2018, a team comprised of Tim Cho, Ethan Ashbrook, Dylan Bowman, and Jonathan Lau won the NAQT Illinois State Championship by narrowly defeating Auburn in an advantaged final 350-320, finishing out the tournament with a 12-1 record. Uni became the very first school from Downstate Illinois to win the event. With only about 320 students, it also became the smallest ever school to win a large school or open division tournament in Illinois. While defending champion, Stevenson, was not present because of poor weather and icy conditions, Uni also became the first team to win the championship with all four starters posting over 20 PP20TUH for the tournament. 2018 also marked Uni's very first appearance in the HSNCT Playoffs, however, back-to-back losses to Lexington and Carnegie Vanguard resulted in an unexpected 51st place finish.

2018 marked the first appearance on the class AA All-State First Team (Tim Cho), as well as the first appearance on a NASAT team (Ethan Ashbrook on Illinois B). Tim Cho, Ethan Ashbrook, and Jonathan Lau were also selected for the local All-Sectional.

Team Members (Subject to Change)

Romaisa Aamer (10)
Maher Adoni (10)
Ethan Ashbrook (11)
Dylan Bowman (11)
Daniel Cho (10)
Tim Cho (12)
Lia Dankowicz (12)
Zachary Donnini (10)
Ryland Graham (9)
Arav Jagroop (10)
Henry Kraatz (11)
Aryan Lalwani (10)
Jonathan Lau (10)
Caitlin Mamaril (10)
Robert Nagel (12)
Nicholas Phillips (10)
Jake Regenwetter (9)
Sasha Rushing (11)
Srijan Shukla (10)
Elijah Song (9)
Zhaohan Sun (9)
Andy Tang (9)
Matthew Tang (11)
Akhil Vytla (9)
Lucas Wood (10)
Joanna Yoo (10)
Lawrence Zhao (9)

Notable Tournament Performances

2015 IHSA State Champions, Class A
2017 IHSA State Runner-Up, Class AA (moved from Class A in 2016)
2017 Masonic State Runner-Up, Class AA
2017 Inaugural South Central Solo: 2nd place, 3rd place, 5th place
2018 NAQT Illinois State Champions
2018 Masonic State Champions, Class AA
2018 SSNCT 5th place

National Performances

2014 HSNCT: 211th/272
2015 HSNCT: 145th/272
2016 NSC: 62nd/96
2017 NSC: 51st/96
2018 SSNCT: 5th/64
2018 HSNCT: T51st/352
2018 NASAT: 13th (Ethan Ashbrook of Illinois B)

External Links

• NAQT Results
• School website
• Uni wins 2018 NAQT State

NAQT Illinois State Champions Champions (2005-pres) Stevenson (2005) · Stevenson (2006) · New Trier (2007) · Auburn (2008) · Auburn (2009) · Auburn (2010) · Stevenson (2011) · Auburn (2012) · IMSA (2013) · IMSA A (2014) · Auburn (2015) · Auburn (2016) · Stevenson A (2017) · UIUC Lab (2018) · Auburn (2019) · UIUC Lab (2020) · Buffalo Grove (2022) Small School Champions (2013-pres) Peoria Christian (2013) · Litchfield (2014) · Macomb A (2015) · Macomb A (2016) · Southwestern A (2017) · UIUC Lab (2018) · UIUC Lab (2019) · UIUC Lab (2020) · UIUC Lab (2022)

IHSA State Championship 1987-91 Quincy (1987) · Quincy (1988) · IMSA (1989) · IMSA (1990) · Centralia (1991) Class AA (1992-present) Hinsdale Central (1992) · Quincy (1993) · IMSA (1994) · Richwoods (1995) · IMSA (1996) · IMSA (1997) · IMSA (1998) · IMSA (1999) · Stevenson (2000) · IMSA (2001) · Wheaton North (2002) · Wheaton North (2003) · Wheaton North (2004) · Stevenson (2005) · Fremd (2006) · New Trier (2007) · Auburn (2008) · Carbondale (2009) · IMSA (2010) · IMSA (2011) · IMSA (2012) · IMSA (2013) · IMSA (2014) · Auburn (2015) · Hinsdale Central (2016) · IMSA (2017) · Stevenson (2018) · University Lab (2019) Class A (1992-present) Rockridge (1992) · Winnebago (1993) · Latin (1994) · Winnebago (1995) · Niantic-Harristown (1996) · St. Teresa (1997) · Latin (1998) · University (Normal) (1999) · Byron (2000) · Warrensburg-Latham (2001) · Latin (2002) · Stillman Valley (2003) · Latin (2004) · Latin (2005) · Latin (2006) · Decatur Lutheran (2007) · PORTA (2008) · Latin (2009) · Lisle (2010) · Lisle (2011) · Peoria Christian (2012) · Peoria Christian (2013) · Litchfield (2014) · University Lab (2015) · Latin (2016) · Timothy Christian (2017) · Williamsville (2018) · Chicago Christian (2019)