2015-2016 It's Academic Season Highlights
2016 National Tournament (Dallas, TX)
The club sent 3 teams from the annual National Tournament. The top 275 qualifying teams competed on Saturday and only the top 30% qualify for the playoffs on Sunday. Our A and B teams made it to Sunday, and our C team went 5-5. On Sunday, the A team crushed their first 2 opponents, then lost narrowly to finish with an 8-5 record, good for 34th in the nation. In Cinderella fashion, our B team won 3 games on Sunday, finishing with a 9-5 record. This placed them 21st in the nation and qualified them for medals and a trophy. The B team was both jubilant and euphoric for over achieving and other coaches wondered how our B team placed higher than the A team.
In the evening Centennial placed third in the nation in a Popular Culture tournament (no surprise there). Sahil Saini captained a team composed of Gary Tse, Kevin Costello, and Siri Neerchal for the Pop Culture. The A team was composed of Gary Tse (captain and graduating senior, Kevin Costello (graduating senior), Jason Li (junior and the top scorer from our school), and Siri Neerchal (junior). The Cinderella B team was composed of Rohan Laljani (captain and junior), Aniruddha Rao (graduating senior), Steen Alme (sophomore ), and Jakob Boeye (sophomore). The C Team was composed of Sahil Saini (captain and junior), Yashas Lokesh (junior), Christopher Cha (junior), and William He (sophomore). |
2016 TV Superbowl and Baltimore Metro Championship
Centennial has won the Baltimore Metro Championship for the It's Academic TV show for the second year in a row (first time we accomplished that back to back in the history of the school)!
On April 30, the TV Team of captain Gary Tse, Kevin Costello, and Siri Neerchal won their semifinal match against Severna Park and Archbishop Spalding 525 to 425 to 340 respectively. The Semifinal Match will air on WJZ TV channel 13 on June 11 at 10AM. The TV team then played the final match against Century from Carroll County and James M. Bennett from just outside Salisbury on the Eastern shore. Centennial recovered from 40 points behind with 18 seconds left, getting 2 20-point questions in the remaining time to tie the game in regulation and force a sudden-death tiebreaker. The tiebreaker question was a visual with musical notes and the lead in line was "It was no surprise when...BUZZ(by everyone in unison on our team answering): Haydn (referring to the Surprise Symphony). The host David Zahren accepted the answer, and we were declared the champion of the 81 teams that started out in September on TV. The raucous reaction to follow was reminiscent of a hockey or soccer celebration; it was great to see the emotional relief at that moment. The final score was Centennial 505, James M. Bennett 475, and Century 405. Our team wins at least $5750 in scholarship money from the sponsor Giant Food. Centennial's It's Academic Team comprising captain Gary Tse, Kevin Costello, Siri Neerchal, and alternate Aniruddha Rao fought valiantly in the Superbowl, but just missed winning the Superbowl to Walt Whitman, the DC Metro Champion. The final score: Whitman 485 Centennial 460 Robert E. Lee 385. A close loss, but we are still the Baltimore Metro Champions! |
2016 National History Bowl (Crystal City, VA)
When the coaches observe their players making intense efforts to exceed expectations, this moment can be both gratifying and inspiring. Such was the case at the National History Bowl in Crystal City, Virginia, where almost 300 teams from around the country who had previously excelled at the regional level converged on the weekend of April 23 and 24 to crown the best academicians in history quizbowl. Centennial sent 5 teams to this 16 hour and 10-14 game marathon that was both grueling and nerve-racking for each team. It is an honor to be selected to participate in the premier national tournament for this history competition. The teams were as follows:
Varsity A: Gary Tse (captain), Siri Neerchal, Aniruddha Rao, Kevin Costello
Varsity B: Rohan Laljani (captain), Christopher Cha, Sahil Saini, Yashas Lokesh
Varsity C: Richard Cui (captain), Aiden Newell, Ben Landrum
JV A: Steen Alme (captain), Jakob Boeye, Bryce Plunkett, William He
JV B: Samyukta Rao (captain), Rekha Ramnath, Vivek Laljani, Balaji Kodali
The key is to meet or exceed expectations. Our JV A team had been ranked 15th in the nation by prognosticators (Madden) and they met that expectation by finishing 17th in the whole nation. They were disappointed not to have achieved more, but they were only 10 points away from entering the Sweet 16 round at the end.
The Varsity B team went 4-1 in the opening round, knocking off a top contender and advancing to the highest level for the afternoon rounds.
The Varsity A team was just amazing. The pre-tournament Madden ranking had them 35th in the nation and our Quizbowl A team has been ranked 16th in the nation by Morlan. The A team went very very deep into the playoffs, knocking out many highly nationally ranked teams. Along the way, they passed local stalwarts like Thomas Jefferson, Maggie Walker from Richmond, and Wilmington Charter. The Maggie Walker match in the playoffs was notable for a victory on the last question, 3 power buzzes netting 90 points in the final round by Siri Neerchal, and a crucial buzz on the Battle of Salamis by Gary Tse (with sweet irony, this was the answer line for the sudden death question in overtime that catapulted us to Superbowl victory last May on TV by Ryan Heslin). At the end (16 hours later and at the point of utter exhaustion), the A team came out 12th place in the nation, easily exceeding expectations
Varsity A: Gary Tse (captain), Siri Neerchal, Aniruddha Rao, Kevin Costello
Varsity B: Rohan Laljani (captain), Christopher Cha, Sahil Saini, Yashas Lokesh
Varsity C: Richard Cui (captain), Aiden Newell, Ben Landrum
JV A: Steen Alme (captain), Jakob Boeye, Bryce Plunkett, William He
JV B: Samyukta Rao (captain), Rekha Ramnath, Vivek Laljani, Balaji Kodali
The key is to meet or exceed expectations. Our JV A team had been ranked 15th in the nation by prognosticators (Madden) and they met that expectation by finishing 17th in the whole nation. They were disappointed not to have achieved more, but they were only 10 points away from entering the Sweet 16 round at the end.
The Varsity B team went 4-1 in the opening round, knocking off a top contender and advancing to the highest level for the afternoon rounds.
The Varsity A team was just amazing. The pre-tournament Madden ranking had them 35th in the nation and our Quizbowl A team has been ranked 16th in the nation by Morlan. The A team went very very deep into the playoffs, knocking out many highly nationally ranked teams. Along the way, they passed local stalwarts like Thomas Jefferson, Maggie Walker from Richmond, and Wilmington Charter. The Maggie Walker match in the playoffs was notable for a victory on the last question, 3 power buzzes netting 90 points in the final round by Siri Neerchal, and a crucial buzz on the Battle of Salamis by Gary Tse (with sweet irony, this was the answer line for the sudden death question in overtime that catapulted us to Superbowl victory last May on TV by Ryan Heslin). At the end (16 hours later and at the point of utter exhaustion), the A team came out 12th place in the nation, easily exceeding expectations