Thanks to a troupe of Keenan men, Notre Dame's accomplishments in intercollegiate team competitions this past weekend were not limited to athletics.Chris Hammer, Troy Androli, Derek Jay and Tommy Gleason traveled to Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) to compete in the ACUI Region 9 College Bowl Championships Friday and Saturday, placing second in a field of 11 teams from colleges throughout Indiana and Illinois.First-place honors went to the University of Indiana, who answered best questions relating to topics such as history, science, current events, literature and art. Notre Dame finished 8-2 in the preliminary round and went 2-2 in the double-elimination playoff round, finishing runner-up and just ahead of Purdue. The University of Indiana will travel to Seattle in late April for the College Bowl National Championships."We had been preparing for the tournament by practicing old questions, so we felt that we had a very good chance of doing well," Hammer said.A College Bowl tournament consists of eight-minute halves with toss-up questions. The first team to buzz in gets to answer. Correct answers result in the chance to answer a bonus question. "Most people there were smart enough to know most of the material, so the big thing was having the intuition to get it early from little clues," said Gleason. "Hammer, Androli, Jay, Gleason and law student Tommy Curtin earned the right to represent Notre Dame at the regional tournament when they placed first in the campus wide team competition in January while competing under the name "Jack Pine Savages." Curtin did not attend the regional tournament in Indianapolis."Obviously I'm a little disappointed that we didn't win, but we lost to a team that was probably better than us," Androli said.Both Hammer and Androli have College Bowl experience, being members of the regional tournament champion from two years ago. The two went on to compete in the national tournament that year, which was held in Philadelphia.Although winning the regional tournament is the only sure way to secure a berth at nationals, regional winners account for only 15 of the 16 slots. The 16th team is selected at random from the 15 runner-up teams at the regional level."We might get lucky and go to nationals," Ray said. "We're hoping we can be that team."
