Fulton School of Engineering captures Academic Bowl championship


ASU’s Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering took home the inaugural Academic Bowl crown after a highly competitive final round of competition Nov. 6.

The school’s team pulled out a last-second 290-285 victory over the team from the W. P. Carey School of Business. The match, along with the semifinal round earlier in the evening, was taped before a boisterous studio audience at Eight/KAET-TV and will be aired at 5 p.m., Nov. 19.

“It really was a lot of fun,” says ASU President Michael Crow, who served as the moderator for the final session. “I was in a competition like this in high school, and it was great to serve as moderator. These teams were really spirited and put on a great show.”

The final match featured Fulton School of Engineering students Karl Sturm, Amy Teegarden, Andrew Holle and Marko Manojlovic taking on Joseph Favre, Chuan Xiong, Alex Porter and Derek Guizado of W. P. Carey.

The matches for the event featured two 12-minute halves, with teams buzzing in for a chance to answer an initial “tossup” question worth 10 points. With a correct answer, the team earned a chance to answer a bonus question worth up to 30 points. The topics included science, geography, literature, arts and science

The W. P. Carey team started out strong, taking an early 130-10 lead. The engineering squad got back into the match with a 65-point run and closed the gap to 160-135 at halftime. Both teams had strong cheering sections, with chants and cheers after each correct answer.

In the second half, Fulton pulled to within 10 points, tailing 170-180.

The W. P. Carey team appeared to have held their opponents off, rallying to take a 220-180 lead, but it was short-lived. The teams traded answers before the Fulton team built a 15-point lead, 290-275.

With the clock winding down, the W. P. Carey team answered a 10-pont question and was just five points down. But the final buzzer sounded before the team could get to the bonus question, leaving its players stunned while the Fulton squad savored its hard-earned win.

“I really didn’t know what to expect,” says Holle, a junior bioengineering major. “You couldn’t gauge the competition just by watching a match. It was pretty intense, and I couldn’t think of a better way for it to end.”

The W. P. Carey players were noticeably disappointed, but they also were glad that the match was so competitive.

“We were right there,” says Guizado, a junior business major. “A close game is preferable to a blowout, but it still hasn’t sunk in.”

For the victory, the Fulton School of Engineering team receives the President’s Cup trophy, and each of the team members will receive $4,500 in scholarships. The W. P. Carey team members will each receive $1,000 scholarships for being the runners-up.

To get to the final match, both teams had to make it through tough semifinal matches.

In the first match of the evening, the Fulton School of Engineering team took on the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Maroon team, with students Eric Cox, Chris Ray, Carlos Ross and McKay Jones. Fulton fell behind early in the first half but came back with a run of 125 unanswered points to hold a commanding 215-65 lead at halftime. In the second half, CLAS came on strong, making a 125-point run of their own to make the score 255-195 in the Fulton team’s favor. Fulton added 30 more points before CLAS made another run and pulled within five points at 285-280. The engineers added 25 points and held on as time expired for a 310-280 victory.

In the other semifinal, W. P. Carey took on the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education, with students Jessica Dailey, Stephanie Green, Michael Stouffer and Nathaniel Hudson. Fulton Education started out strong, building a 110-20 lead early in the half. The teams then traded points, with Fulton Education holding a 155-85 advantage at halftime. In the second half, both teams traded the lead. W. P. Carey opened up strong, surging to a 210-160 lead, but Fulton Education answered back to grab a 220-210 advantage. The lead was short-lived, however, and W. P. Carey finished with a flourish to post a 290-215 victory.

The ASU Academic Bowl included 16 college teams from across the university, beginning with competition Oct. 12.

“I didn’t come in this competition expecting to win,” says the Fulton team’s Teegarden. “It’s amazing to think that we are the winning team out of 16 tough teams. I think it’s a fun event and exciting for all of the colleges involved.”

A complete listing of the teams involved can be found online at (www.asu.edu/news/academicbowl/about.html).