December 7, 2024 - After many years of knocking on the door & near-misses the Panthers of Washington Community High School have finally won their first International Scholastic Bowl championship.
Washington not only won the $300 grand prize & trophy, but will also qualify to compete at the WACA Academic WorldQuest in Washington, D.C. in April 2025. The Panthers are coached by Marc Kugler.
Rounding out the top finalists were - St. Teresa of Decatur (2nd Place), Galesburg (3rd Place), & last year's champions East Peoria (4th Place).
The Peoria Area World Affairs Council welcomed over 132 students from 16 high schools on December 7th representing central & western Illinois ranging from the Peoria-area, to the Quad Cities, Decatur, Bloomington-Normal, & Champaign-Urbana.
Due to the tournament being a month later than in year's past - the tournament featured several newcomers including: Moline, Rushville-Industry, St. Thomas More (Champaign), Central A&M (Moweaqua) and the return of veterans - Morton & Dunlap. All of these schools posted exceptional play. Most notably upstart, St. Thomas More, who is a newcomer to the scholastic bowl tournament scene, not only qualified for finals in their first appearance after upsetting Rushville-Industry, but nearly upset East Peoria in the quarterfinals, narrowly missing a shot at the final four.
The tournament also featured several redemption arcs as the Panthers claimed their crown by avenging their championship loss to East Peoria in 2022 & Galesburg finished 3rd after narrowly missing a finalist bid the year before.
On the All Tournament Team, leading the pack was last year's first team All Stater, Logan Philips (St. Teresa), who again lapped the field answering a blistering 37 toss ups in the morning rounds. Most notably, over half of this year's All-Tournament Team featured underclassmen. Our question writing team looks forward to the challenge of welcoming them back next year. This was the second year featuring the house-written question sets of Mitch Baron & Trevor Nigus, teams again enjoying the increased depth & diversity of content.
Making the tournament possible were over 35 volunteers from PAWAC as well as friends of PAWAC including former coaches, players, Bradley University, & Illinois State University students. Who we could not have done it without them!
