Upper School Quiz Bowl Team Rounds Out Year at Nationals

Over Memorial Day weekend in Atlanta, the Greenhill Upper School Quiz Bowl team was one of 336 teams at the 2025 High School National Championship Tournament (HSNCT) run by NAQT, the preeminent Quiz Bowl organization in the United States. Below is some history and a brief recap of the team’s performance.

Last year, Greenhill sent two teams to the championships. Greenhill A – Kate Ponnambalam ’26, Maya Jagsi ’26, Ayan Thombre ’26, and Aaron Kuang ’26 – started off 3-1 before finishing with a 4-6 record. Greenhill B – Henry Lipnik ’27, Tomal Khan ’28, and Adam Tawil ’29 – finished 5-5 after losing their last game to miss out on the playoffs by one win. Tomal had an impressive debut at HSNCT, finishing as the highest scoring 8th grader – 45th among all players.

This year, Kate, Maya, Ayan, and Tomal joined forces, and the results speak for themselves. The team and their solid 5-3 start to the tournament were dealt with an unfortunate setback, losing a close match to fall to 5-4. A fifth loss would end their tournament, but they battled back to win their tenth match decisively and officially make the playoffs.

The first playoff match went quite well – another impressive victory – while the second started off very strong (225-55 after the first tossup of the second half) before the formidable opposing team ran off 180 straight points to take a late lead. However, Kate scored two straight tossups to salt the game away.

A deeper run was not meant to be, with the team falling to the eventual 13th place squad. The team ended tied for 49th place. This is one playoff win behind Greenhill’s 2023 finish, and it sets a worthy benchmark for continued growth next year.

Tomal led the team in scoring at 55.56 points per game and received the #1 Freshman Rising Star award for his efforts. However, Quiz Bowl is a team game, and each of these players deserves commendation for representing Greenhill so well against the best of the best.

Congratulations on a great showing! We look forward to seeing what next school year brings.