Maryland

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Maryland
Maryland.jpg
Location:
"Scenic" College Park, MD
Current President or Coach Sarang Yeola
National championships 2017 ACF Nationals; 2015 NAQT Undergraduate; 2008 NAQT Division I; 2019 NAQT Division II, 2007 NAQT Division II; 1981 College Bowl
NAQT Page link

The University of Maryland is a large, state school in College Park, Maryland.

Origins

The program was founded in the Fall of 1978. Gary Stolovy wrote all the questions for an It's Academic-style intramural tournament in the Spring of 1978 whose final match was hosted by Mac McGarry. This sparked interest for intercollegiate competition. Student Union program coordinator Stephanie Bowers and committee members Paul Tannenbaum, Bob Maranto, Brick Barrientos and Stolovy were among those instrumental in founding the program.

The team, featuring Brick Barrientos, Townsend Reese, Robert Whaples, and Robert Saltzberg, won the 1981 College Bowl National Championship in Huntington, WV.

History

Maryland was one of the original schools to de-affiliate from CBI and form ACF.

In 2007, Maryland won the 2007 ICT Division II title. The team also won ACF Fall that year hosted at UNC.

In 2008, Maryland won the Division I ICT. That year, Maryland won a series of regular season events including FICHTE, ACF Regionals, two different NAQT Sectionals, the VCU mirror of MUT, the UNC mirror of Illinois Novice, Cardinal Classic, Penn Bowl, PARFAIT, Titanomachy, ACF Fall and EFT. The general A Team present at these tournaments includes Jonathan Magin, Charles Meigs, Chris Ray and Jeremy Eaton, although Mike Bentley and Dan Suzman have occasionally played on the A Team at these tournaments. Jonathan Magin was also on a team that won Illinois Open and the Chicago Open.

The team has been successful regionally and nationally since Magin's graduation, as Chris Ray's playing career continued unabated. Maryland's many top-bracket finishes since have included 4th place at the 2011 ICT.

For much of its history, the Maryland team had a cult-like love of an ancient 16-player buzzer system affectionately dubbed "The Knot," replacing it in full when it broke in the late 2000s. It then broke a second time around spring 2013 and was not repaired thereafter.

In 2014-2015, the year following Ray's departure to Chicago, the team won the Undergraduate National Championship at the 2015 ICT and finished third at 2015 ACF Nationals. The latter finish was Maryland's highest at a national tournament since 2008.

A Maryland team consisting of Jordan Brownstein, Weijia Cheng, Ophir Lifshitz and Sam Rombro won the 2017 ACF Nationals.

Hosting Tournaments

Being something of a nexus of quizbowl on the East Coast, Maryland typically hosts a large number of tournaments during the year for multiple difficulty levels and audiences.

Traditionally, Maryland hosts one college tournament each year, TIT or the Terrapin Invitational Tournament, which in recent years has been called different names like SUBMIT and STIMPY. The 2020 iteration of Terrapin was spun into Terrapin Open, a Nats-minus tournament. The school has also been a frequent site of national tournaments on both the high school and college circuits, being the host of 2004's PACE NSC, 2006's ICT, 2007's TRASHionals, the 2010 and 2012 iterations of ACF Nationals, 2011 NASAT, and the 2013 PACE NSC. It was scheduled to host 2008's ACF Nationals before the Maryland Scheduling Department mucked things up.

Maryland traditionally hosts two high school tournaments in the fall and spring. The Maryland Fall Classic tournament traditionally was a variation of the It's Academic format, although it has recently switched to pyramidal questions (from HSAPQ at first, then NAQT). The Maryland Spring Classic tournament has been an mACF style tournament for many years.

In the past, Maryland used to host a novice tournament called DSHIT. This was discontinued in 2005 due to a lack of interest.

Current Members

Former Members

Many former Maryland players still play at trash tournaments on the College Park Retirement Castle team.

Title Succession

ACF Nationals Champion
Preceded by
Year
Succeeded by
Michigan
2017
Upcoming
NAQT ICT Division I Champion
Preceded by
Year
Succeeded by
Chicago
2008
Chicago
NAQT ICT Division II Champion
Preceded by
Year
Succeeded by
Stanford
2007
Carleton

College Bowl Title Succession

College Bowl Nationals Champion
Preceded by
Year
Succeeded by
Fresno State
1981
North Carolina

Unofficial title succession

ACF Nationals Undergraduate Champion
Preceded by
Year
Succeeded by
Unknown
1994
Georgia Tech
ACF Nationals Undergraduate Champion
Preceded by
Year
Succeeded by
Georgia Tech
1996
Virginia

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