Chipola Completes Second Threepeat In National Quiz Bowl Competition
On Saturday, February 28, the team from Chipola College of Marianna, Florida won the 2026 NAQT Community College Championship Tournament, to complete their third consecutive national championship, matching the mark the Chipola teams achieved between 2011 and 2013. As in 2025, Chipola defeated the A team of Murray State University of Tishomingo, Oklahoma in an advantaged final. Chipola, coming in with one loss to Murray State A in the playoff round robin, won the two matches of the final, 315-235 and 415-300, to win the tournament. This was Chipola's sixth CCCT championship.
Chipola finished the tournament with a 12-1 record, while Murray State A entered the finals undefeated, and finished with an 11-2 record. Valencia College of Orlando, Florida finished third with a 9-2 record, while Murray State's B team finished in fourth with an 8-3 record.
Quiz bowl is a competitive, academic, interscholastic activity for teams of four students. Quiz bowl teams use buzzers to answer questions about science, math, history, literature, mythology, geography, social science, current events, sports, and popular culture. The matches feature a blend of individual competition and team collaboration, since no individual player is likely to be an expert in all subject areas. Participation in quiz bowl both reinforces lessons from the classroom and encourages players to develop new intellectual interests.
The 24 teams competed in four pools of six and then the top teams were placed in a championship pool of eight, and played round robin matches against the other teams in the championship pool.
The Chipola team was captained by Devin Tharp, but the lead scorer on the team was sophomore Jeremy Scurlock. who 60.91 scoring average placed him fifth in the field. Both Tharp and Scurlock were high enough scorers to place on the tournament All-Star team. The team was rounded out by sophomore John Maupin and freshman Ian Hatcher.
The leading scorer for the tournament was Clete Reinberger of Valencia, who had a scoring average of 88.18. The top scorer for Murray State, Kanyon Beck tied for second overall score with Riley Ray of Redland Community College of El Reno, Oklahoma, both scoring 71.82 average.
Since 2002, NAQT has awarded a championship for the top Community College quiz bowl team. After their performance on Saturday, the top three teams from the Community College Championship will play again in April in Chicago at the NAQT Intercollegiate Championship Tournament. Those squads will join 60 four-year colleges and universities in competing for the championship.
The full results of the tournament are available at https://www.naqt.com/stats/tournament/standings.jsp?tournament_id=17103