North Carolina Central University's quiz team won the school's first Honda Campus All-Star Challenge national championship this month in Torrance, California.
The six-member, all-women team went 6-0 in round-robin play from April 11 to April 14, then beat Benedict College 570-540 and North Carolina A&T State University 700-530 to reach the semifinals. There, NCCU came from behind against Fisk University and clinched the match with the response "Beowulf." One more step.
In the best-of-three final, NCCU faced defending champion Hampton University. The teams split the first two games before NCCU pulled ahead late in the deciding match. The team then answered all 10 questions correctly in the Ultimate Challenge round to secure the title and a $500 bonus grant.
The championship also brought NCCU a $100,000 grant. Junior Alena Dockery, the team's leading scorer, averaged 55 points per game, finished as the tournament's second-highest scorer and earned HCASC All-Star honors, which added another $2,500 grant for the university.
The win capped a long climb for NCCU, which previously reached the HCASC finals in 2006 and 2009 before breaking through in 2026. It also made history beyond the trophy. NCCU said this was the first all-woman squad to represent the university and only the third all-women team to win the national championship.
"Our team practices four days a week for several hours and seeing that dedication result in the very first NCCU championship ... is incredible," team captain Ronni Butts said.