AUT's University Challenge team achieve fourth place overall
Viewers of the University Challenge saw AUT's hugely improved run in the competition come to an end last Saturday.
In a highly-anticipated semi-final match, AUT encountered a very polished team from the University of Canterbury.
Two members of the current Canterbury team lifted the trophy two years ago, and the team was also a finalist last year, so Saturday night was always going to be a tough contest. AUT congratulates the Canterbury team and wishes them all the best as they make their way into the finals for the third consecutive year.
The AUT team faced Canterbury twice during the University Challenge series – during their first heat, when outstanding competition from both teams saw a narrow defeat for AUT by only 10 points, and then again in the semi-final.
With this performance and an earlier win against Lincoln University, AUT was placed fourth overall in the competition. This is a fantastic result for AUT considering the team had not competed in the competition before, and is a vast improvement on previous years.
Katharine Hoskyn, Co-Op Supervisor, Marketing, Advertising, Retailing and Sales (MARS) and the head coach of this year's team, said in congratulating the team, "the team did so well. All of the other teams in the semi-finals included players who have appeared on University Challenge in previous seasons. Ours is the only team of first-timers to reach the semi-finals."
Our team of five (Michael Bunn (Engineering with Honours), Matt Funaki (PG Conservation), Nuala Lavin (Health Science), Neil Porten (Law) and Hayley Wadmore (Communications)) were chosen from a university-wide series of tests and live heats, and have all put in a huge effort to get to this stage of the competition. Congratulations to our team members for their dedication and performance during the competition – and also to the many members of the AUT community who supported and encouraged them.
The AUT community is encouraged to continue to watch the final two episodes of University Challenge: Waikato University vs University of Auckland semi-final, and then the final.
Screening details:
Saturdays, 6 – 6:30pm, Prime TV.
You can watch the latest episodes here.