Upper School Academic Team Earns Bid To National Championships

Ranney’s Upper School Academic Team earned its first-ever bid to the national academic team championships in Chicago through their recent fourth place finish at the Delaware Fall Open held at the Wilmington Charter School in Wilmington, DE. To earn national championship bids, teams must finish in the top 15% of prestigious regional tournaments, and Ranney’s team turned in an impressive performance against an experienced and tough field. In these tournaments, students answer general knowledge questions in a quiz bowl format on a wide variety of topics ranging from math and science, to history and politics, to music, art, and pop culture.

Teams from thirty schools (public, independent, parochial, and magnet) from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, participated at this year’s Delaware Fall Open. Ranney succeeded in making it through the preliminary rounds with a 4-1 record that included two dramatic comebacks where the team prevailed on the final question. Their record in the preliminaries advanced them to the “winners bracket” of the playoff round where they went 3-0, including convincing victories against their New Jersey rivals Seton Hall Prep and Bergen Academies before a final win against the undefeated team from Mount Pleasant High School (PA). The win against Mount Pleasant ensured Ranney’s berth into the Final Four of the tournament, thus earning them their national championship qualification. In the championship round, Ranney missed making the tournament finals by only one question.

The Ranney team included seniors Chris Lombardi, who served as team captain, and Ben Mooney, as well as ninth graders Roey Hadar and Jake Bassinder. Mooney was the team’s expert in science, psychology, and philosophy, while Hadar dominated the categories of geography, current events, politics, and sports. Lombardi was the team’s expert on history and music, while Bassinder scored critical points on questions pertaining to Napoleon, the Chronicles of Narnia, and others. Both Mooney and Hadar ranked in the top 15 in total scoring for the entire tournament out of nearly 150 participants.

Led by coaches John Lewis, Head of Ranney’s Upper School, and Doug Felter, Upper School English teacher, the academic team practices twice a week and has grown into one of the Upper School’s largest activities. Said Lewis on Ranney’s recent victory, “It was thrilling. We’ve been close a few times before, but we’ve never been fortunate enough to make the Final Four at a major tournament.” Adding that the team was down 100 points during the preliminaries, Lewis said the team answered the final five questions to win on the last question. He acknowledged their hard work finally paid off. “I’m especially happy for Chris and Ben. They’ve worked hard for four years. Jake answered some important questions in the clutch, and Roey has the potential of being one of the best academic team players in the nation. It’s hard enough to make Ranney’s “A” team, but for him to be in the top 15 scorers in a tournament like this as a ninth grader is unprecedented,” said Lewis.

The team has several more regional tournaments on their calendar before their Memorial Day weekend trip to Chicago, where they will be matched up against the best 150 teams nationwide. Several members of Ranney’s Upper School Academic team alumni compete at the college level, including last year’s captain Christina Henricks, who is a member of the Princeton University College Bowl team.

For additional information on all Ranney School news, please contact the Communications Department at communications@ranneyschool.org.