The History Bowl team traveled to San Leandro on March 2 to participate in the Northern California History Bowl Championship and emerged with flying colors. Both the varsity A-team and JV team won championships in their respective divisions.
Both teams’ performances impressed History Bowl founder David Madden, who, after the tournament, ranked them both as the national No. 2 History Bowl teams in their respective divisions.
The A-team, made up of seniors Spencer Goldman, Kian Anderson and Maggy Liu and junior Nick Chow, romped through the preliminary round robin matches with a perfect 5-0 record.
Despite their ultimate success, the team had a few early missteps in the the opening phases of the tournament.
“Our toughest match was our second preliminary round against Escobar,” Anderson said. “We had to deal with a formidable team while still warming up.”
They struggled early against the resilient Escobar team before rallying to a close victory.
“[We stumbled early] because we knew they were good, and that psyched us out a little,” Liu said.
Meanwhile, the Saratoga B team of seniors Michal Kranz, Nikki Bedekar and Kabir Chandrasekher qualified for the playoffs with a 3-2 record, but eventually fell in the quarterfinals to San Leandro.
All of the B-team’s losses came down to a few questions.
“The toughest matches were probably the ones against Escobar, and San Leandro in the playoffs, because both of these teams were at times faster and frankly luckier than we were,” Kranz said.
In the end, fittingly, Saratoga A faced Escobar in the tournament finals. After shaking off a slow start and building momentum, Saratoga emerged victorious. Liu believes that the victory in the first Escobar match was pivotal, as it proved to the team that they could beat Escobar and bolstered their confidence.
In the JV division, the Saratoga JV team, consisting of sophomores Ethan Ngai, Boyu Pang, Nitya Sampath and Bruce Lou, tallied a perfect 7-0 record en route to winning the title over Bellarmine.
“I was very satisfied with the team’s performance since we ended winning all the matches we played and took home the champion title,” Pang said.
Yet, this victory came as hardly a surprise for the JV team, which has made history by becoming the first team ever to win three consecutive regional championships in one year.
“The JV team knows historical knowledge beyond their young years,” Liu said. “[They have] wisdom that surpasses their youth.”
Just two weeks prior to the San Leandro tournament on Feb. 16, the team visited Mira Loma for their second tournament of the year. They emerged with a staggering victory, sweeping every possible award. The team won first and second place in the varsity competition and first place in the JV division. Additionally, Goldman won first place in the individual competition.
The team has wrapped up its stellar regular season and begins its preparation for the national competition, which will be held April 27-28 in Washington, D.C. Regardless of the team’s success in tournaments, they know that there is still much to be worked on.
“History Bowl is the kind of sport where knowledge of little details can make a big difference—[for example], knowing that the Magna Carta had a clause concerning the removal of fishing traps is key to answering a question before your opponents,” Anderson said. “We are constantly working to learn even more information on topics we are already familiar with in order to gain the competitive edge.”
Topics such as music, art and literature are all areas that the team needs to improve on, said Kranz. Anderson believes that the team needs to work more on more obscure topics, such as Indian and African history too.
However, all members agree that the JV team has huge potential for a deep run in the national tournament.
“The JV team has consistently dominated at every single tournament,” Anderson said. “They will be a force to be reckoned with at Nationals.”