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The Greenhill School Upper School Quiz Bowl program has had a busy semester, posting terrific results in town, across Texas, and even in Georgia for Nationals. Read about their results below.
| CISTERCIAN SPRING INVITATIONAL |
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In January, Greenhill A (Maya Jagsi ’26, Tomal Khan ’28, and Ayan Thombre ’26) finished second in the Varsity Division. Tomal and Ayan were both in the top 10 in points per game (PPG) among all Varsity players.
In the Junior Varsity division, Greenhill B (Blake Clark ’29, Evan Huang ’29, and Colin Houpt ’29) went on a run during playoffs to win the division! The final two playoff matches were in doubt heading into the final toss-up, and the team came up clutch. All three of them finished in the top 8 in PPG among JV players.
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| NORTH TEXAS INVITATIONAL |
| In March, Greenhill’s team of Tomal Khan ’28, Ayan Thombre ’26, Colin Houpt ’29, and Evan Huang ’29 finished in a tie for fifth with a respectable 5-3 record. Tomal was third in PPG among all players. Of note: the team was the only one to defeat eventual champs Cistercian A on the day, and they also defeated St. Mark’s A in the final round before losing to them in the first playoff contest. |
| NAQT INDIVIDUAL PLAYER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT |
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In early April, Ayan Thombre ’26 finished in 14th place in his specialty (history) and 41st place in geography. Tomal Khan ’28 finished in 16th place in literature and a remarkable 13th place overall out of the 300 competitors. This tournament is unusual, as it consists only of toss-ups – written at a collegiate level – and it draws all the best players from across the country.
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| 27TH ANNUAL TQBA STATE CHAMPIONSHIP |
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Later in April, the Greenhill team (Tomal Khan ’28, Ayan Thombre ’26, and Colin Houpt ’29) traveled to the Houston area. Tomal led all players in scoring (by a considerable margin). Together, these three finished on a high note, beating Houston Memorial in their final playoff match to finish third in the state.
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| NATIONAL HISTORY BOWL/BEE |
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At the end of April, Tomal and Ayan traveled to Washington, DC, to participate in the National History Bowl and National History Bee, with Tomal also playing in the Academic Bee. The team took 22nd in the Varsity division of the History Bowl, and individually – Ayan tied for 63rd in the History Bee’s Varsity division, while Tomal tied for 51st in the History Bee’s JV division. Tomal soared to fourth place in the JV division of the Academic Bee, narrowly missing out on a podium finish.
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| NAQT HIGH SCHOOL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT |
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The crowning achievement of the season was arguably at the Championships over Memorial Day weekend in Atlanta. The team consisted of Tomal Khan ’28, Ayan Thombre ’26, Blake Clark ’29, Colin Houpt ’29, and Evan Huang ’29, and they went 7-3 in the preliminary rounds – Greenhill’s best record at that phase in at least four years.
The first round of the double-elimination playoffs saw a disappointing conclusion, as the opposing team was granted an additional opportunity (on which our team was not allowed to buzz) following their successful protest after a moderator / author error; they capitalized on that chance to jump into the lead after the rest of the game had been completed. This sent Greenhill into the losers’ bracket, where a loss would immediately end the tournament.
Greenhill was down 95 points with only five questions left to play, at which point the team went on a run: Ayan got a history tossup, one tossup went dead, Blake got a pop culture tossup, and Ayan correctly solved which literary character the next tossup was discussing. Still behind heading into the final tossup about current events… Evan got it quickly, and the subsequent bonus points put the game away for a thrilling comeback win!
The team steamrolled to victory in the next game – by 520 points – before facing a tough team from New Hampshire. Once again, Evan got a current events tossup late in the game, turning a 10-point deficit into a 10-point lead with only one tossup to go. On that final toss-up, Tomal rang in with the correct literary title character, sealing another playoff victory!
The next game was a very difficult matchup, and the opposing team finished on a 280-25 run to end the tournament. Greenhill finished tied for 21st place.
For his exceptional work on tossups, Tomal was the #1 Rising Star among sophomores at the tournament and finished just barely outside the top 40 overall in scoring.
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Congratulations to all our Upper School Quiz Bowl students on a great year.
About Quiz Bowl
Quiz Bowl is a knowledge/trivia game where two teams of up to four individuals attempt to buzz in first with the correct answer on a toss-up question; correct toss-ups earn the team a bonus question where they can discuss answers amongst the team, while incorrect answers lock the team out for the rest of the toss-up and possibly cost points.
The topics for tossups and bonuses span the gamut of academic knowledge – with literature, history, and science being most popular – as well as pop culture, current events, sports, and occasionally general knowledge.
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