For the third year in a row, the PAWAC International Scholastic Bowl has crowned a new champion – the Dukes of Dixon High School.

On Saturday, Nov. 8, the Dukes did not let an early morning bus ride and close matches phase them as they went 7-1 on the day, ultimately besting Peoria Notre Dame in the title game.

The event was no ordinary scholastic bowl tournament as players were not only quizzed on the classics like literature or chemistry, but emphasized students’ knowledge in global education and news headlines around the world from this past year.

Dixon won the $300 grand prize and trophy, as well as an automatic bid to compete at the World Affairs Councils of America Academic WorldQuest in Washington, D.C. in April 2026.

The 24th annual International Scholastic Bowl welcomed students from 20 high schools to the campus of Bradley University in Peoria representing central and western Illinois, ranging from the Peoria area, the Quad-Cities, Decatur, Bloomington-Normal, Champaign-Urbana, and Springfield.

Rounding out the top finalists were Peoria Notre Dame (second place), University (Normal) (third place), and Richwoods (Peoria) (fourth place). Other afternoon finalists were Illinois Valley Central (Chillicothe), Rochester, The High School of St. Thomas More (Champaign), and North Mac (Virden).

One of the all stars of the day was Dixon’s Nathan Stauter, whose 33 questions placed him second out of 170 students overall on the All Tournament Team.

Members of the Dixon High scholastic bowl team include Stauter, Ronin Quick, Jayden Toms, Gage Farster and Brady Rosinski. The team is coached by Tom Padilla.

The tournament was made possible by over 30 volunteers as well as the Peoria Area World Affairs Council, Bradley University, the Carson & Iris Varner International Business Institute at Illinois State University, BuzzerSystems.com and CEFCU.