National academic contest comes to U.

Teams from 64 colleges from across the nation and England arrived at the University last weekend to take part in an international quiz competition sponsored by the National Academic Quiz Tournament. NAQT, a company founded in part by Wharton graduate Pat Matthews, chose the University for its experience in hosting large academic tournaments. "It's a huge responsibility in terms of room reservations, staffing and support, but because of the history Penn has with Penn Bowl, we thought this university was the best," said Matthews, a 1993 graduate who translated his fondness for his quiz bowl experiences at Penn into an effort to bring such opportunities to other students. Allowing the participation of graduate students and multiple teams from a single school, NAQT offered an opportunity for colleges to participate in a national tournament other than the College Bowl, the traditional national quiz event. Of the more than 40 invitational tournaments throughout the year, the NAQT event at Penn was the largest, according to Kevin Olmstead, a NAQT co-founder. The tournament represented a growing interest in academic tournaments, the University of Detroit Mercy professor added. Hosting its first tournament ever, NAQT employed a "double Swiss system" incorporating sixteen matches over two days into the schedules of the four-person teams. Taking the place of Penn Bowl for a single year, the tournament used questions whose topics ranged from science and literature to history and pop culture. "The questions have an American tint so it's been fun and a chance to take the knowledge to a different level, playing students from a different culture," said Chris Harrison of London's Imperial College Team. A team from the University of Chicago won the event, which included a team from Penn and will rotate among several college sites each year. "It's a great way to make friends, traveling on the road with each other to other campuses," said College sophomore Josh Levy, who along with Wharton junior Michael Margolis, College sophomore Mike Kreidler, College junior Jason Arvey and Engineering junior Anil Vaswani comprised Penn's academic bowl team. "The practices are fun and very relaxed; come as you are, come with what you know -- the knowledge about yourself, your teammates and the trivia comes along the way," said Arvey, the team's captain. The enjoyment of academic competition comes from the time spent with teammates, and the interaction to learn new things and see what people already know, according to Jon Morris, a graduate student and member of MIT's team. "I love getting nuggets of information I didn't have before, little autobiographical facts about a famous person or historical figure," Matthews said.