On Sunday, November 10th, 32 teams from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware came to the Morristown-Beard School for the first Morristown-Beard Fall Invitational. Here's a recap of the tournament!
East Brunswick A:
Led by junior Josh Yi's 6th place individual finish, at 85 PPG and a 51% power rate. East Brunswick cleared the field with a record of 11-0, defeating Livingston A in the final. East Brunswick put up an impressive 25 PPB, missing just three bonus parts in a final victory against Livingston. Josh was capably supported by first-year sophomore teammates Pratik Singh, Amy Xu, and Lillian Zhu, who played well, especially for players attending their first couple of tournaments.
Livingston A:
Behind Carolyn Meng's 107 PPG and 47 powers and literature/myth specialist Rosa Xia's 71% power ratio, Livingston A's all-junior team took 2nd, losing twice to East Brunswick A in their first and last games, putting up 490 PPG and a 24.2 PPB. Combined with the support of Veena Nambi and Ethan D'Costa, this team put up impressive wins against 3rd-place Ridgewood A in the semifinals and 5th-place Bergen Tech-Teterboro in the quarterfinals.
Ridgewood A:
Ridgewood topped the field in both PPG (with 510) and PPB (with 25.84) en route to a third place finish behind the efforts 10th place individual Aum Mundhe and 8th place Philip Terman, who each put up over 70 PPG in the prelims, before ending with 70 and 66 PPG in a strong 3rd place finish. Their strength despite being a team transitioning from history bowl marks them as a force to be reckoned with this coming season.
Bergen Tech-Teterboro A:
Teterboro put up a respectable 23.89 PPB as third place scorer Nick Zhang's 95 PPG, science specialist Rohit Agarwal's 75% power rate, and a team 64% power rate earned this team the final HSNCT qualifying spot. This team's only drawback seems to be their neg count, with 35 negs, including 9 in a surprising upset loss against Ridgewood B, but their buzzer speed and knowledge can take them far this season.
Millburn A:
Millburn's sophomore science specialist Ben Hu played solo, putting up a field-leading 140 PPG and a respectable 20.27 PPB, losing only to MCA B in the quarterfinals and Teterboro in the 5th place match, ultimately finishing 6th. His impressive finish, despite just being a sophomore, leaves Millburn as a leading contender in the Northeast circuit now and into the future, even with Dean Ah Now's graduation this year.
MCA B: MCA B, led by Shaochen Wang's 71 PPG, finished 4th, losing close games against Ridgewood A (twice!) and eventual champion East Brunswick. Shaochen was ably supported by Adrija Kundu, Avinash Kumar, and Ethan Lee, who all put up over 20 PPG while combining for 41 powers.
Other teams of note include Lawrenceville A, which finished 8th place and the largely-freshmen Livingston B, which finished 12th, (the highest finishing B team) Bergen Academies, Morristown-Beard, Newark Academy, West Essex, Edison, and West Windsor Plainsboro North also made the top playoff bracket. Ridgewood B took the top spot in the consolation bracket.
Morristown-Beard saw many teams making their first recent forays into pyramidal quiz bowl, including Newark Academy, West Essex, Palisades (Pennsylvania), and Immaculata, and performed admirably against strong competition. We hope to see these teams around the circuit again, and would like to thank Morristown-Beard for an incredible job running their first tournament! Best of luck to all teams this season!
By Carolyn Meng, Livingston High School