Harvard's College Bowl team crushed Yale and seven other schools en route to sweeping the MIT Beaver Bonspiel tournament this past Saturday.

After round-robins against eight teams each, the Harvard A and Harvard B college teams entered the semifinal round undefeated. In the semifinals, the B team beat Boston University's A team and the A team beat Yale's A team.

In an ironic twist, Harvard's two teams played against each other in the final round. The A team won.

"We were joking in the beginning about meeting in the finals, but we didn't expect it to really happen," said B team member Geoff I. Criqui '96. "It was good that we both did so well."

John J. Todor '95, A-team captain, said that his team was unquestionably the best.

"Statistically, Harvard A was clearly the best team in the tournament," Todor said. "We averaged over 200 points. It was exceptional."

Team members said they were particularly excited about beating Yale.

"Harvard B demolished Yale A 370-60," said Jordan A. Katine, a physics graduate student on Harvard's A team. "It was just a rout. It was very demoralizing to Yale."

Scott L. Alport '98, of "Teen Jeopardy" fame, said that he relished the victory over Yale.

"We destroyed Yale," Alport said. "Their only two losses were to us."

Questions

The questions ranged from the academic to the trivial, Katine said.

On popular culture:

"He was a popular TV star in the 1960s, but was reduced to dinner theater in Arizona in 1978, when he was brutally murdered." The answer: Bob Crane.

On "name sounds the same":

"A French painter and a city." The answer: "Jericho and Gericault."

Jeff Johnson, an English graduate student on the A team, rang in and answered that question even before the moderator gave the details, Katine said.

Some of the questions had to do more with anticipation than knowledge, Alport said.

"You have to anticipate, or else the good teams can beat you to the buzzer," Alport said.

One such question had to do with spelling.

"If you were a lexicographer, you'd probably be really good at spelling," ran the question. "By this point, you'd probably know that you have to spell 'lexicographer.'"

Harvard's College Bowl team is historically one of the top five programs in the country, Todor said.

In a national poll, it was recently ranked number 6. The top teams are Georgia Tech, the University of Chicago and the University of Maryland.

The team hosts an area tournament in December. Other major tournaments include one at Princeton, during the weekend of the Yale game, and one at the University of Pennsylvania during Harvard's intersession