Five Harvard students captured the regional College Bowl championship at Fairfield College in Connecticut last week. The team will go on to compete for the national championship to be held in Miami in June.

The students, Paul Bernstein '81, Andrea Eisenberg '80, Andrew Van Houten '79, Jerome Vered '79, and Mark Zupan '81, qualified for the regionals through their performance in the College Bowl competition for Harvard students held here on February 24.

Heather E. Cole, librarian at Hilles and Lamont libraries, who organized the College Bowl competition at Harvard and served as coach of the regional squad, said that the other competing schools underestimated the strength of the inexperienced Harvard five.

Eisenberg said yesterday the team arrived in Fairfield "expecting to lose," but ended up defeating favored Yale twice--eliminating it from the tournament--to capture the title.

The competing teams had to answer questions on topics ranging from famous white-suited comedians to state capitals named after Presidents and 18th century English monarchs.

Speed Freaks

Van Houten said yesterday that answering questions before the moderator has finished asking them is a key to success in the game.

Bernstein said yesterday he got the idea for a College Bowl team last summer when he was bored on the day of his sister's wedding and turned on the TV to see the reborn College Bowl television show.

Bernstein wrote to Archie C. Epps II, dean of students, over the summer suggesting a Harvard College Bowl team.

Epps turned the direction of the Harvard competition over to Cole and the Lamont library staff.

Teams from the 15 national regions will meet in Miami for the national championship. Art Fleming, game-show host, will moderate the event, a prospect the team members say excites them.

The winner of this meet will attend the international championship. Last year, an all-star team from Great Britain over-whelmed a Stanford University squad for the international championship.