Valencia College's Brain Bowl teams traveled to Chicago for the National Academic Quiz Tournaments Community College Championship, joining 22 other teams. Valencia fielded two squads, the Red team and the Black team, and both finished in the top 10. The Red team took third place with a 9-2 record, earning a spot in the NAQT Intercollegiate Tournament on April 9-12 against four-year colleges and universities. The Black team went 8-3, won the middle bracket and placed ninth overall among the 24 teams that qualified. Valencia's Clete Reinberger was the tournament's top overall scorer among 104 students. He was joined on the Red team by Isabella Da Costa, Heloisa Carneiro and Kai Devane. The Black team members are Greg Suarez, the 23rd overall scorer, along with Jason Neff, Keira Mackinnon, Samantha Norman and Reyna Martinez.
The first-place prize went to Chipola College, with Murray State second, and Valencia's games against both were decided by the final question. The Red team also finished third last year. Coach Chris Borglum said he revised his expectations after the first day of play, and Clete Reinberger said the team came together in part through the addition of Kai Devane, an honors student and president of the Valencia College history club who joined at the suggestion of honors adviser Kera Coyer. Kai, 24, said he wants to become a college history professor and would like his name in the program's history. Over the years, Valencia's Brain Bowl team has won 8 state titles and 9 national community college titles, finishing in the top 3 in 17 of the 26 years NAQT has crowned a community college champion.
Samantha Norman, a dual enrollment student from Wekiva High School on the Black squad, plans to study entomology and serves as the team's art history specialist. She spent some of her free time in Chicago visiting the Art Institute of Chicago, where she saw the Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks in person, and much of the rest with her teammates.
Press release issued by Valencia College:
https://news.valenciacollege.edu/valencia-college-brain-bowl-team-finishes-third-in-community-college-championship/
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