Varsity statistics from California Cup #4 can be found here.
This write up is the first of two and contains only the top five teams in the Varsity division.
1st place – Bellarmine A
Bellarmine A goes undefeated for the first time since the first Cal Cup, securing their place as series champions for the second year in a row. As overall third scorer with 73.89 PPG, senior Jarek Jankowski once again leads his team, with main support from fellow seniors Alejandro Buendia (40 PPG) and Jonchee Kao (33.89 PPG). Every member from Bellarmine A managed to have more powers than gets, and individual negs were below .5 a round with the exception of Jarek, who averaged just over one a game. As a team they averaged about 2 negs a game, but that was easily offset by their powers, which always nearly reached or did reach the double digits. Their first game saw them go an impressive 14/1/3 against California Crosspoint A (545-150) and a later game against “Escobar” A saw a stat line of 11/6/1 (640-45). PPB remained at their usual level (23.87), usually hovering around 24 in each game, even hitting 26.5 against “Haarlem” A and never dipping below 22.5. Similarly, total points scored per round never dipped below 405, which was their score in games against both Saratoga A (405-300) and “Haarlem” A (closest game of the day at 405-315, in which they only managed to get ten tossups to “Haarlem”’s nine, but were saved by the aforementioned bonus conversion). Given that the Northern California State Championship on April 11 will be held on an NAQT set, as opposed to Cal Cup #4’s BHSAT, by most predictions the tournament could reasonably go to either Bellarmine or Saratoga, and promises to be an exciting one.
2nd place – Saratoga A
Bruce Lou is unable to tie Bellarmine in Cal Cup wins, dropping games to Bellarmine A and Palo Alto A (an extremely close loss with a final score of 320-335) while securing top individual scorer with 146.67 PPG. Impressive enough on its own, but even more so while soloing, Bruce managed just five negs over the course of nine games, but saw a clear drop in his powers (although he still had the most of the tournament, with 47 to Eric Chen’s 36). In his best round, a shut-out victory over a shorthanded “Guilder” A, he managed to go 4/14/1, finishing 625 to their 15. Per usual, Bruce’s gets-to-neg ratio dwarfed the rest of the field at 22.2, with the exception of 5th scorer junior Jason Chen of Amador Valley, who finished with 19. As with his powers, his PPB was also affected by the difficulty of the set, although an average of 22.88 with a peak of 25 is the opposite of a lackluster performance. His powers-to-neg ratio came close to topping the field as an individual (and did as a team) at 9.4, were it not for “Haarlem” junior Gautham Parvar’s 13, although the difference between going 47/5 and 13/1 is significant. Likely due to the difficulty of the set and Bruce’s lack of a team, the difference between Bellarmine and Bruce’s stat lines was far more pronounced than usual (77/42/19 to 47/64/5), and the two will likely be far closer in the upcoming state championship.
3rd place – “Haarlem” A
Finishing at third place for the first time since Cal Cup #1, “Haarlem” A finishes 7-2, dropping games only to the teams that placed above them (315-405 in Bellarmine A’s closest game and 215-470 against Saratoga A). Senior Eric Chen places as second overall scorer at 77.78 PPG, more than doubling “Haarlem” A’s second-scorers points. They had the second-best PPB of the field at 23.08, hitting 25.88 in their first game of the day, a 640-30 victory over “Escobar” A in which they went 7/10/1. The increasingly impressive depth and breadth of “Haarlem”’s knowledge is further illustrated by their ability to power more tossups than they tenned except in three rounds, two of which had the same number of powers and tens, and one of which was the aforementioned “Escobar” game, which even legendary powerhouse Bruce did not manage at this tournament. “Haarlem” may have finally addressed their negging problem, managing this time to get the tournament’s second-lowest number (14 to Saratoga A’s 5). As the ways things have gone thus far this season, expect third and fourth place at NorCal State to be contested closely between “Haarlem” A and Davis A.
4th place – Davis A
Displaced from third in the last Cal Cup, Davis A loses just one too many a game to place higher, finishing in 4th place with three losses in a row to Saratoga A (270-355), “Haarlem” A (285-400), and Bellarmine A (210-420). The first and last of those were very much so the result of too large a number of negs (5 against Saratoga and 6 against Bellarmine), as they usually managed to keep them more under control (but did nearly lead the field with 22, short of “Guilder” A’s 26). Senior Jayanth Sundaresan and sophomore Eliot Williams led the team tied for 10th individual at 38.33 PPG, with junior Anthony DiCarlo closely following at 31.11 PPG and junior Teddy Knox at 26.11. Their PPB was commendable at 22.79, but they also managed to get the tournament’s highest single-game PPB, scoring an incredible 28 PPB in their 6/4/3 396-235 game against Amador Valley A. Davis A also managed to power more tossups in each game than they actually got for ten, and saw their best games come against Palo Alto A (going 9/3/1 for a 470-260 win) and “Cougars” (8/7/2 for a 495-110 win). With the parity between Davis A and “Haarlem” A, and Davis’s strength on NAQT distributions, they may likely take third place or at least give “Haarlem” a difficult fight for it.
5th place – Palo Alto A
Similarly, Palo Alto A finishes 6-3, dropping games to Davis A (260-470), “Haarlem” A (210-470), and Bellarmine A (240-450), but upsetting Saratoga A 335-320, in both teams’ closest games of the day. Senior Max Krawczyk and junior Trevor Filseth tie for 6th overall scorer with 41.67 PPG with their remaining teammates both hovering around 20 PPG. With 18 overall negs, they should probably be a bit more careful with their aggression, but usually kept a handle on it with around two per game, with the exception of a lucky game against California Crosspoint A, in which they negged five times but managed to still win 325-255. Their best games came against “Cougars” (6/9/1, 485-75) and “Guilder” A (4/11/3, 465-80), and their best PPB in their loss to Bellarmine A (24.29), although they tended to hover closer to their 20.72 average. Max’s impending graduation should help them curb their negs a bit (his 13 to Trevor’s 3), but for the time being expect a similar finish at NorCal State.
