Harvard Team Takes College Bowl; Qualifies for National Tournament

Harvard's college bowl teams captured five of the top seven places during a tournament at MIT last weekend.

Teams from Brigham Young University and Williams College were the only squads to challenge Harvard's stranglehold on the top spots, finishing fifth and sixth, respectively. The tournament's format featured Jeopardy-style questions and answers.

Twenty teams from Boston University, Brandeis, Brigham Young, Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, The University of Pennsylvania and Williams participated in the event, held Saturday at MIT's Sloan Business School.

Eric B. Evans '93 captained the first place team, which also included Sumit K. Daftuar '96, Lee A. Mancini '94, and Asmin C. Pathare '93.

"We were basically able to dominate," said Evans. "The Harvard college bowl program is remarkably strong. Right now, I don't think I could think of a team I would rather play with."

By winning this tournament, the Harvard squad qualified for April's national college bowl championship. The club can send one team of four to the tournament, Pathare said.

Lori B. Daniels '95, the club's co-president, said Harvard should have a good chance of winning the tournament this spring.

"Now, we have powerhouse freshmen who are teamed up with experienced members from last year--our secret weapons," Daniels said. "I'd be surprised if we didn't win this year, since we didn't lose anybody [to graduation]."

Last year, MIT placed first in the national tournament. The Harvard team did not have enough funds to attend that tournament, Daniels said.

This weekend the club will send two teams to a tournament at Princeton. Team members said they expect to emerge victorious.

"What is really intimidating to other teams is that the one which took first place at the MIT tournament had only two experienced players," said team member lordan A. Katine, a Graduate School of Arts and Sciences student.

"All they have to do is imagine what would have happened had we had four experienced players on one team," Katine said.