Although the Northwest Shoals Community College didn't win the championship at this year's Community College Championship Tournament (CCCT), the team had an impressive weekend, especially freshman Dalton Stults, who finished with the high individual score of participants on the 24-team field.
The two-day competition, sponsored by National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC, was held February 28th-March 1st in Chicago. The annual event brings together the top 24 community college teams from across the country. Teams qualify by how they perform at Community College Sectional Championship Qualifier Tournaments. Qualification is by team, and not individual, performance, even though top individual performance is recognized at the competition.
NWSCC took home 10th place in the team competition with a 7-4 match score. After losing its first two matches, the team notched win in its next seven matches in the preliminary and playoff rounds.
Stutts served as team captain for NWSCC. The other team members included Jackson Crook, Landon Ethrington, Nick Pounders and Emmie Smith. Brad Pool, History professor at NWSCC, serves as the team's faculty sponsor.
Each champion of a sectional receives an automatic invitation to the CCCT, with remaining teams selected based on a calculated statistical rating system, with the teams invited in descending order of ranking.
Northwest Shoals took home first place in the December 2024 Jefferson State Christmas Invitational, where Stults finished at tournament top scorer.
Stults, a 2024 Russellville High School graduate, earned the overall individual high score based on his points per 20 tossup questions heard (PP20TUH).
The NWSCC team defeated teams from Tennessee, Florida, New Mexico and Alabama community colleges during its CCCT run.
Three of the five NWSCC team members are freshman (Stults, Smith and Crook) and will be able to compete next year. This was the final year of CCCT competition for sophomores Ethrington and Pounders.
