Greenhill Quiz Bowl Teams Excel in February

February was a busy month for Middle and Upper School Quiz Bowl teams. See the results below.

On February 18, the Greenhill Spring Invitational — the first tournament hosted on campus since before the pandemic — brought 18 quiz bowl teams from eight different campuses to Greenhill. 

The rounds were played on questions from NAQT (IS-219) and teams all played 10 matches. After five morning matches — a full round robin within three balanced 6-team groups — the top six teams advanced to the Championship Group where they played another full round robin, while the remaining 12 teams played a Swiss-system tournament for five full rounds.

After Championship Group play, St. Mark’s School of Texas A (ranked #28 in the nation) and Houston’s Strake Jesuit A (ranked #15 in the nation) were even at the top of the standings and agreed to share the Championship title. Greenhill A (Ahmed Agha ’23, Iyad Mohammed ’24, Krish Mysoor ’24, Nikky Nandipati ’24, and Doodle Schultz ’25) finished fifth overall.

Meanwhile, in five rounds of the tournament, Greenhill B (Maya Jagsi ’26, Aaron Kuang ’26, Kate Ponnambalam ’26, Pratosh Raman ’26, and Ayan Thombre ’26) were the only team to go undefeated and won the tournament, placing them seventh among all teams. Greenhill C (Akash Bose ’27, Tomal Khan ’28, Connor Kim ’28, Arman Makhani ’28, and Dylan Shah ’28) finished on a four-game winning streak in the tournament to place ninth overall.

For the day, Greenhill’s Nikky Nandipati ’24 led all scorers with 87.5 points per game, while Greenhill’s Kate Ponnambalam ’26 was second with 71.5 PPG. In a very impressive showing, Greenhill Arman Makhani ’28 was seventh overall with 50.0 PPG, despite playing against all high school students.

Special thanks to everyone for their help before, during, and after this terrific event.

Moderators and Advisors: Lee Hark, Paul Mlakar (St. Mark’s), Grant Mindle (Cistercian), James Herman, Tim Lohr, Ben Whitley, Sybil Ponnambalam, Karrie Piper, Bill Piper, Emma DeVine, Delano Barnes, David Kim, Michael Patison, and Marieke Doherty (Shelton).

Scorekeepers/Data: Ansh Gandhi, Rishi Kumbhani, Adam Tawil, Vivianne Wang, Sammar Agha, Beck Fuller, Kaden Alibhai, Sophia Mohamed, Isabel Martinez, Finley Spector, Elizabeth Mann, Ava Klein, Payton Blalock, Ben Schackman, Safin Stefanos, Valerie Xu, Meera Priyan, Sarah Siddiqui, Emily Hu, Teja Mettu, Henderson Zhang, McKenna Higgins, Ben Bautista, Cole Ashley, J. J. Arbuckle, and Asha Blewett.

Also, a big thank you to the Jagsi family for bringing enough donuts for all attendees.

See the complete standings here.

 

Greenhill Middle School quiz bowl teams competed in the Hawk Middle School Invitation on February 25 at Cistercian Preparatory School. The six teams had a great performance with a team making it to the final in each division.

Greenhill B (Blake Clark ’29, Benedetta Gennarelli ’29, Colin Houpt ’29, Evan Huang ’29, Adam Tawil ’29, and Vikram Sampath ’27 — who joined the team for a few matches after lunch) took on St. Mark’s School of Texas A in the final round putting Greenhill sixth graders against their eighth graders. The prodigious group had an excellent performance, finishing second in the Middle School division.

Greenhill D (Trenton Chou ’29, Beck Fuller ’30, Anderson Tsao ’29, and Ansh Verma ’29) faced St. Mark’s School of Texas E in the finals in the Elementary division. After a tough playoff game, the team placed second in the division.

In addition to our strong performances on the scorecards, Greenhill students showed great teamwork, supporting each other and banding together.

Special thanks to Naureen Agha and Julie Houpt for ensuring that no student went hungry, and to the parents who supported students throughout the tournament. Also, thank you to Coach Ponnambalam, particularly her efforts with GHB, Coach Piper for stopping by in the afternoon, and Coaches Lohr, DeVine, and Whitley for helping prepare students to compete at the highest level.

See the complete standings here.