NCCU’s All-Women Quiz Team Wins First National Championship, Makes University and HCASC History

North Carolina Central University (NCCU) has captured its first-ever Honda Campus All-Star Challenge (HCASC) national championship, making history with an all-women team and a dramatic, come-from-behind finish.

Competing April 11-14, 2026, in Torrance, California, NCCU defeated defending champion Hampton University in a high-stakes, best-of-three final to claim the title and a $100,000 grant.

NCCU's team is the first all-woman squad to represent the university and only the third all-women team in HCASC history to win a national championship.

This is a breakthrough victory for NCCU," said Clayton Mack Jr., NCCU HCASC head coach and associate director for the Division of Extended Studies. "This team combined brain-power, focus, resilience, and most of all, teamwork when it mattered most. Their belief in each other propelled them to victory."

The team went undefeated (6-0) in round-robin play, then advanced through the elimination rounds with a 570-540 win over Benedict College and a 700-530 victory against North Carolina A&T State University.

In the semifinals, NCCU rallied from behind to defeat Fisk University, clinching the match with a correct response of "Beowulf" to secure a spot in the finals.

The championship series came down to the wire.

NCCU took game one before Hampton evened the series. In the final match, NCCU pulled ahead late and sealed the victory with a flawless Ultimate Challenge round, correctly answering all 10 questions to secure the title with a $500 bonus grant.

"Winning the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge feels great," said Ronni Butts, team captain and junior political science major. "Our team practices four days a week for several hours and seeing that dedication result in the very first NCCU championship, while also representing the first NCCU all-female team to compete in the championship game, is incredible."

Junior Alena Dockery led the team with an average of 55 points per game, finishing as the tournament's second-highest scorer and earning HCASC All-Star honors, along with an additional $2,500 grant for the university.

The six-member varsity team includes:

• Ronni Butts (captain), Charlotte, North Carolina, junior political science major
• Chantel Chestnutt, Goldsboro, North Carolina, junior history and political science major
• Alena Dockery, Youngsville, North Carolina, junior political science major
• Genayah King, Painesville, Ohio, junior accounting major
• Jadzia Kowalczyk, Garner, North Carolina, freshman art and design major
• Iman Shakur, Columbia, South Carolina, senior biomedical sciences major

The championship win comes after several years of near misses for NCCU, which reached the national finals in 2006 and 2009 and made multiple semifinal appearances.

In addition to Mack, the team is coached by faculty advisor and adjunct assistant professor Janice Dargan, Ph.D., and Teah Smith, assistant coach and director of tutoring and supplemental instruction. A nine-student support team contributed to preparation and training: Isiah Baptist, Amiya Neal, Micah Johnson, Ember Jones, Marissa Jones, Millai McGee, Christian Nettles, Vashti Pearson and Marisa Torres.

"We congratulate the outstanding scholars from North Carolina Central University on their well-earned victory in the 2026 Honda Campus All-Star Challenge," said Jasmine Cockfield, Honda Campus All-Star Challenge project lead at American Honda Motor Co. Inc. "Honda remains committed to driving the legacy of HBCUs by elevating academic excellence and supporting students who continue to move that legacy forward."

Founded in 1989, the HCASC is the nation's premier academic competition for students at historically Black colleges and universities. More than 125,000 students have participated nationwide.

For more information, please visit https://www.hcasc.com. Follow the team on Instagram at @NCCUHCASC.

MEDIA ASSETS: Download photos and b-roll of NCCU's historic win here.