History> 1998-1999 The (K + 1)th Year; K = 3

The fourth year semi-officially kicked off with the good vibes that had ended during the third year. Lamenting that summer was usually devoid of opportunities to play, Trevor began to organize summer practices in his apartment and then struck upon the idea of an internal-to-Iowa tournament where people would write and bring their own packets to play. This culminated in G*rilla Bowl and Trevor, Robert, Matt, Nichol, Mary, Mike and Ryan attended and played on packets written by Trevor, Robert, Matt and Nichol and on a slew of trash packets. Robert won handily but a good time was had by all. Pictures in front of a post-storm rainbow and dinner at TGIFriday's topped the event.

The Fall season heralded the return of Matt Larson to eligible play, but very little else changed. The early season influx featured one former Dubuquer-turned-Seattle resident, Lindsay Jones. Lindsay, an adept player, quickly established herself as a club regular. Also arriving was comic book god and geek-trash master Josh Elliott. The season commenced and Iowa hoped to meet the challenge of besting the previous years finishes. That challenge would be aided by the financial windfall of hosting the "Trevortational" — a tournament written almost totally by Trevor and attended by 24 teams from 6 states.

Then, the competitions started and, as always, Deep Bench proved to be a bane. Robert Trent, after 3 consecutive years as the undisputed ruler of first singles, elected not to attend this tournament and thus, Iowa's main scoring force was gone. Despite the fact that every team but Chicago and Michigan was somewhat weaker than the year before, Iowa once again jobbed, finishing 6th overall with no one even close to winning a title in any category. This was followed by a frustrating 11th place finish out of 13 at the Illinois Masters' tournament where the Iowa team of Trevor, Matt, Wade and Lindsay lost 6 games by negligible margins. One weekend later, Aaron, Trevor, Wade and Nichol pulled off a string of victories in the playoffs to capture the 2nd place trophy at the NAQT Big 10's, losing to Michigan in the finals. A final foursome of Trevor, Matt, Mike and Wade enjoyed 70 degree weather in St. Louis for Wash U's December invitational and made the playoffs, losing to Illinois in the quarters.

The sluggish and unproductive fall semester soon began to wash away with the snow storms and winter semester meant a fresh start. Joining up to rake some glory in for Iowa was North Carolina export Heather O'Neill, community college transfer Christina Powers, ISU refugee Jon Stewart and newcomers Emily Meyer and Chris Sobbing. The club, revitalized with this influx, sent 2 teams to Quincy's invitational and the team of Trevor, Lindsay, Wade and Nichol almost won a trophy with a narrow loss in the semis and a subsequent loss in the 3rd place game. The B team of Jon, Mike, Josh and Andrea became the first Iowa B team in a long time to not finish dead last and racked up a few victories in the tourney. Iowa's hosting of the NAQT Sectionals (TD's by Nichol in her first solo effort as a coordinator) meant more revenue for the Iowa team but also a depleted A team of Aaron, Mary and Trevor that ultimately finished in the middle of the pack. For the first time, however, Iowa was able to field a Division 2 team and Lindsay led the effort with Emily, Christina, Josh and Chris Sobbing following her lead.

February competitions closed with the apocalyptic CBI Regionals in St. Cloud, Minnesota. It was a team of destiny — Aaron, Trevor, Mike, Wade and Lindsay — that ultimately won the title over the most obnoxious Minnesota team seen in recent history. After both teams logged a 15-2 record, the 18th game ended in a tie and Aaron broke the tie to give Iowa the 10 points they needed to win a trip to Florida and another chance at the CBI U.S. Nationals. It was the sweetest moment in Iowa Quiz Bowl history.

After bowing out of ACF Regionals, Matt and Nichol sojourned to the non-stop fiasco that was the Wichita State Freeze Your Buzz Off 3 tournament. Matt finished 3rd in individual scoring, and Kansas is full of incompetent people. The following month, Robert Trent made his grand return to competition at the Quincy Hawkfest and, supported by Trevor, Matt and Jon, comprised the most balanced and strongest team that Iowa had fielded in years and maybe ever. Despite this, Iowa finished 3rd overall and 2nd in collegiate rankings, losing out on a chance to have a re-match with Chicago A by losing on the last question to the master's team of Hillemann & Schmidt. The rotating B team of Lindsay, James, Christina, Nichol, Mike and Josh earned a few victories and stayed out of the cellar usually reserved for Iowa B teams.

Then came the nationals. Iowa closed its season by becoming one of the few teams to compete in all three nationals and Iowa team members put forth efforts that resulted in team bests for each of the three formats. Aaron, Trevor, Matt and Mary (and Nichol as team support) kicked it off with a 13th place effort at NAQT Nationals in Ann Arbor on a set of tournament questions that were the hardest ever seen by those in attendance. This was followed by the ultimate vacation-tournament at the CBI Nationals in Florida. Flying into and out of Jacksonville, the Iowa team of Aaron, Trevor, Mike, Wade and Lindsay (and Heather as our official representative) played well, beat eventual champions Chicago and earned a respectable 7th place finish with Aaron winning a coveted All-Star award as the 4th highest scorer of the tournament. One week later, Robert closed out his eligible career at Iowa by joining forces with Trevor, Matt, Wade and Nichol to capture 6th at ACF Nationals, the highest finish ever for any Iowa team in its history. Robert also accomplished a feat which may never be duplicated by an Iowa player — he finished as the 2nd place All-Star in this tournament. It was a fitting close for Robert as it was his most prestigious individual finish while at Iowa, and also for departing team member Wade who closed his career by answering the last toss-up of the competition on Johannes Brahms. In all, a great way to finish our fourth year and it will be the end of an era as we send Wade off to Princeton for a Ph.D. in Economics and to Robert, who will be heading back home to Tennessee. We will miss both of them very much.