“In this state, Robert Barnwell led the Bluffton Movement and the Nullification Crisis was sparked by John C. Calhoun.”

Immediately, freshman Kiran Rachamallu slammed the bright red buzzer and with an exhausting last breath, shouted “South Carolina!” to win in the Saratoga High History Bowl competition on Dec. 5. The final match, being held in the school, was against a home schooled team, Pioneers, as the team won first place.

Having sealed its spot in the national finals in Washington, D.C., during the week of April 20-25, the team rejoiced after a hard-fought match.

Throughout the past year, the school’s History Bowl team has been on course to qualify for the national competition.

Due to the previous success of class of 2015 alum Bruce Lou, who placed first nationally in the individual History Bee and led the team to first at Nationals last year, the team was able to make a name for itself as it became recognized as one of the best in the nation.

To follow in Lou’s footsteps, the team is taking many actions to prepare for the national competition.

“We have started increasing the difficulty of problems so when we get to the national competition, we will be more prepared for the harder ones,” junior captain Bryant Chang said.

The team is also participating in many more tournaments to train and strengthen the members of both JV and varsity, said Chang. The members have weekly practices with tournaments about every three weeks to keep their knowledge improving as they approach nationals.

Both the JV and varsity teams are looking to continue on earlier successes with a good record at nationals. Last year, the JV team placed second and the varsity team won the tournament. They are hoping to continue on this streak, despite the loss of Lou and other key JV members that advanced to the varsity team.

“The JV team won its division, so I am excited for the new members of our team since they played very well in their first tournament,” Chang said.

With the national finals approaching quickly, the team is anxious to represent the school well and win altogether.

“Even if we don’t [win], I’ll be proud of the team as we have definitely improved for the future,” Rachamallu said.

JV:

Sophmores: Roy Shannon, Tiffany Huang, Kyle Wang, Tristan Xiao, Neil Rao, Jessica Wang, Angela Lee

Freshman: Matthew Graham, Kiran Rachamallu, Manit Sripadam, Victor Liu, Anson Ton

Varsity:

Juniors: Bryant Chang, Mason Tian, Andrew Owens, George Wang, June Kim, Karissa Dong, Richard Wang, Arjun Mishra, Kylash Krishnamurthy, Kevin Chow, William Hsiao

Seniors: Daniel Eem, Nate Ney, Allen Shen