First berth came in 1985

I guess I’ll have to keep working.
Actually, I would have had to keep working anyway because I didn’t enter the Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge.
The bracket was low on my priority list this year. As soon as I was handed one at work, I immediately filled in all the No. 1 and 2 seeds as first-round winners. That worked out.
I then put Duke into the Sweet 16. (The Blue Devils always make it at least that far, right?)
After that, I didn’t touch it again until about Thursday at noon, just minutes before the games started.
As it turned out, my perfect bracket was busted in the first game when Dayton upset Ohio State. (It hasn’t gotten any better since.)
The first of our two questions this month is all about upsets. The other comes on the heels of the Jay County High School gymnastics team competing at the IHSAA State Finals on Saturday.
Let’s get to them.
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What is the largest amount of upsets (lower-seeded team defeating a higher seed) in the history of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament since it was expanded to 64 teams?
—Nathan Miller,
Wanamaker

Using Miller’s standards, the most upset-laden was the 1999 tournament, which actually ended up with three No. 1 seeds — Duke, Michigan State and Connecticut — in the Final Four. But on the way, a record 23 lower-seeded teams won games.
The Sweet 16 that year featured five teams seeded No. 10 or worse, including 10th-seeded Purdue.
The NCAA has a different standard, defining an upset as “when the winner of the game was seeded five or more places lower than the team it defeated.” By that measure the most upsets came with 12 in 1986, which Indiana fans will remember for the Hoosiers losing to my alma mater, Cleveland State, in the opening round.
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Who was the first Jay County athlete to participate in the IHSAA Gymnastics State Finals, and what was the event and year?
—Phil Ford, Dunkirk

Jay County has become a regular participant in the state finals in the last decade, with Hannah Williams, Nadlie Runyon and Katie Snyder combining for eight individual berths prior to the entire Patriot team competing Saturday. Williams won two state medals on the balance beam, and Runyon added another.
But the tradition started nearly 30 years ago, when Jodi Phillips competed at the state finals on the floor exercise and vault in 1985.[[In-content Ad]]