The members of the History Bowl team made history themselves last weekend, winning all three major events in an unprecedented sweep of the National History Bee and Bowl National Championships in Arlington, Va.
The varsity A team, consisting of senior co-captains Bruce Lou and Ethan Ngai, senior Nitya Sampath and junior Nathan Ney, won first place after a nail-biting rematch against last year’s champion, the Liberal Arts and Sciences Academy (LASA) of Austin, Texas. Roughly 250 teams competed.
The Falcons lost to LASA 380-240 last year in the final round, placing second overall.
"I don't think the team fully expected to win,” Sampath said. “But this year, I think we realized that we wanted to win a lot more than we thought."
This year, the team maintained a sizable lead throughout the final round, until the two teams were tied going into the last question 290-290.
“Getting stuck in a tie was exactly what I feared, and we started losing momentum, but in the end, I knew I couldn’t stand to lose by such a close margin,” Lou said.
The last question went on for four excruciating lines before Lou buzzed in with a correct answer of Jugurtha of Numidia, making the final score 300-290 in favor of Saratoga.
In addition to the National History Bowl tournament, some of the team members participated in the U.S. History Bee and the History Bee, which was also held at the same location.
Lou, the defending champion of the U.S. History Bee, again captured first place, defeating Sam Blizzard of Northmont, Ohio 10-5 in the final.
Lou also participated in the History Bee, which is an individual, History Bowl-style competition sponsored by the same organization. Lou took first in this competition as well.
The school also sent members in the History Bowl varsity B, JV A and JV B teams to participate in the History Bowl tournament.
The JV B team, which includes sophomores Bryant Chang, Arjun Mishra, Andrew Owens, Mason Tian and Richard Wang placed second in the JV category. Varsity B and JV A, however, did not place.
"The JV B team has really good chemistry. That helps during the rounds, because we know we can trust each other. No one can cover everything by themselves," Tian said.
To the members of the team, this has been a successful end to a great season.
“I’d been looking forward to and working for this moment for three years now,” Lou said. “It’s only fitting that something that has affected my high school career so much should end on a high note like this.”