Difference between revisions of "Saieesh Rao"

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{{Infobox|Name = Saieesh Rao
 
{{Infobox|Name = Saieesh Rao
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|Subjects = Geography, Chemistry, Biology, Greek/Norse/Hindu Myth, Pokemon
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|Subjects = Geography, Mythology, Chemistry, Biology
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|schoolcur = [[University of Chicago]] (2013-present)
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|schoolcur = [[University of Chicago]] (2013-2017)
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|schoolpast =
 
 
|highschool = [[Illinois Math and Science Academy]] (2010-2013), [[Stevenson]] (2009-2010)
 
|highschool = [[Illinois Math and Science Academy]] (2010-2013), [[Stevenson]] (2009-2010)
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|middleschool = [[Twin Groves]] (2007-2009)}}
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|middleschool = Twin Groves (2007-2009)}}
  
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'''Saieesh Rao''' is a rising fourth-year at the [[University of Chicago]], and was a former player at the [[Illinois Math and Science Academy]]. Notable for being the only person in Illinois history to have played for the [[IHSA]] State Championship-winning school all four years of High School, he was by far the most inspirational player on the IMSA team during his tenure and his toothless grin is priceless (until a dental implant amended his situation). His Quizbowl study habits are matched by none other (except for [[Daniel Collins]]). Rather than [[fraud]]ing knowledge, he actually knows it.  
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'''Saieesh Rao''' was a former player at the [[Illinois Math and Science Academy]] (IMSA) and the [[University of Chicago]]. He is notable for being the only person to have played for the [[IHSA]] State Championship-winning school in four consecutive years (2010-2013). During his tenure, Saieesh was respected for contributions in varied areas such as geography, science, and mythology, as they reflected "true knowledge" rather than studies specifically for Quiz Bowl.
  
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==Middle School==
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Saieesh's quizbowl career began at [[Twin Groves|Twin Groves Middle School]]; during his leadership of the team, it was the only team in the region that could upset the [[Barrington Station]] juggernaut.
  
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===Twin Groves===
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In his high school career, Saieesh's notable accomplishments include an instrumental role in IMSA's three consecutive [[IHSA]] state championships (2011-2013) as well as 3rd-1st-3rd places at the 2011-2013 Illinois [[Masonic]] Tournaments, 4th place at the 2013 [[Illinois NAQT State Championship]], and a 13th place finish nationally at the 2011 [[NAQT HSNCT]]. Individually, he was a Top 7 finalist at [[Scobol Solo]] during his senior year, making the wildcard slot as the player with a 5-2 record with the highest [[PPG]].
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Saieesh's quizbowl career started inauspiciously in the fold of Twin Groves Middle School's scholastic bowl program. He would've made the school's A team in 6th grade, though he missed two tryouts during a family trip to India and was subsequently penalized, which resulted in him not making the team. In 7th grade he made the cut, though the coaches, in the spirit of offering all players a chance to participate, only played him for half of each game during infrequent conference matches. It wasn't until a home-game against rival [[Woodlawn Middle School]] when he nabbed a whopping 3 tossups in the first 15 question half, thereby leading his team in tossups-earned. After being pulled out at the half as usual, the Twin Groves team fell behind, so he was subbed back in with eight questions to go, six of which were then converted by Saieesh. From that day on, Saieesh's inner fire was awakened, leading to his recognition as a peerless force in the northwest suburbs' middle school scholastic bowl circuit. Saieesh captained his team to win the [[Patriot Conference]] both of his two years on the team, the only force in the region capable of upsetting Coach [[Jeffrey Price]]'s [[Barrington Station]] team.
 
  
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When Saieesh was in eighth grade, the Twin Grove's middle school scholastic bowl tryouts program introduced make-up sessions for students in the event that they missed tryout days. This was directly a result of having missed Saieesh as a sixth grader due to the rigid attendance policy.
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Saieesh was a question writer and editor for the [[IMSANITY]] tournament series in years 2011-2013.
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====Egan's Bet====
 
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At the sixth annual [[Barrington Invitational]] Tournament held on March 14th, 2009, Saieesh earned the right to request $10 from [[Tom Egan]] for answering a bonus part Egan believed would not be converted by Middle Schoolers. The full account on the forums can be found [http://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=6833&p=124133&hilit=cirque#p123845 here] and is quoted below.
 
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''In other notes; Mr. Egan owes someone on Twin Groves A a $10 bill. Egan felt pretty certain this bonus part would go dead and offered a $10 bill to the middle schooler who could answer it:''
 
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''Landform where valley glaciers may form in a hollowed-out portion of a mountain." Answer: Cirque''
 
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However, Saieesh's dad intervened using the account username "naren" and relinquished Saieesh's right to claim the $10; the post can be found [http://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=6833&p=124133&hilit=cirque#p124133 here]. [[Mike Wong]], hearing of these events for the first time early in the fall of the 2010-2011 quizbowl season, is said to have exclaimed, "[Saieesh's] dad is so cool!" for having used the forums before any member of IMSA's soon to be A-team.
 
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==High School==
 
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===Adlai E. Stevenson High School===
 
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At [[Stevenson]], Saieesh was confined to the Frosh-Soph circuit due to the insistence of then-coach [[Bruce Fitzgerald]] to segregate members based on grade-level rather than ability. Thus, along with his sophomore teammates (whom he played with and against in middle school), Saieesh helped Stevenson dominate the Frosh-Soph Circuit of Northeastern Illinois, winning high profile tournaments such as the [[Carmel High School Invitational Frosh-Soph Tournament]].
 
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====Encounter with IMSA====
 
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Saieesh played his future homeschool (IMSA) only at one tournament that year at the [[Wheaton Frosh-Soph Tournament]], where he played the IMSA B-team (led by pre-scobol-dropout Yang-Yang Feng) once and the IMSA A team (then comprised of [[Adam Kalinich]], Moreni[[bayo Bankole]] II, Madhav Mohandas, and Rose Sloan) twice. Stevenson's first match against IMSA went badly, as signified by history expert Bayo's buzz on "gravity" which heralded the beginning of the end for that match. Stevenson then returned to meet IMSA in the finals, where Saieesh immortalized himself in IMSA memory by [[power]]ing the first tossup of a devastating match in which Stevenson dealt IMSA its first loss of the season. The tossup, mentioning DNA analysis, the jungles of Guyana, and a comet like figure flying through the sky, hearkened Saieesh back to his childhood days of playing Pokemon and immediately reminded him of the opening scene to "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon:_The_First_Movie Pokemon: The First Movie]," leading Saieesh to buzz with "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mew_(Pok%C3%A9mon) Mew]." From that point on, Saieesh was then regarded as the "Pokemon Carry" at Stevenson. Although Saieesh had stopped playing Pokemon for a while, his Pokemon knowledge was still fresh due to his side-hobby of programming a fully functional Pokemon Game on his calculator. As the last tossup was inevitably a mythology question (as it always is in the Frosh-Soph circuit), teammate [[Michael Hu]] clinched the match, buzzing on the stock clue "barge" and answering with Ra.
 
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Upon hearing of Saieesh's decision to transfer to IMSA in the fall, teammate [[Johnathan Kersky]] told Saieesh on the bus coming home that day that he shouldn't leave because "Stevenson is going to win three state championships next year (see [[Illinois Triple Crown]])." Those words, however, proved themselves to be oddly ironic in the coming months, as IMSA's rise was just fermenting.
 
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===IMSA===
 
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Saieesh first proved himself at IMSA's first practice of the year in late August when he singlehandedly answered an easy literature bonus on "Truman Capote/Breakfast at Tiffany's/In Cold Blood." He then led the IMSA A team in points at the 2010 [[Wheaton Kickoffs]] Tournament, which used geography-rich NAQT questions, due to his extensive geography knowledge. Although replaced as an A-team member by [[Adam Kalinich]] later in the year, Saieesh played an important role at the IHSA state series, in which he beat [[Kevin Malis]] (from his homeschool Stevenson) in a buzzer race to "Jasper Johns." IMSA later placed 3rd in the state Masonic Academic Bowl Tournament that year, but did not participate in the NAQT State Tournament due to the suspension of teammates [[Eric Ordonez]] and [[Webster Guan]] in the scandal known as "Trainagate," in which IMSA teacher Joseph Traina found a number of students operating a fake Facebook account in his name.
 
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The coming year led to a decline in Saieesh's quizbowl activity due to his participation in a rigorous and time-consuming calculus elective at IMSA known as "BC-Fast," which precluded some of his time to go to quizbowl tournaments. Along with the meteoric rise of IMSA's [[Nolan Maloney]],[[Eric Ordonez]],[[Webster Guan]], and [[Adam Kalinich]], the A-team that year was set. Saieesh went 4-3 at the New Trier [[Scobol Solo]] that year, his first appearance.
 
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In his senior year, Saieesh played various roles on both of IMSA's A and B teams. He got five tossups against [[Ladue]] at the Missouri Invitational Tournament in Columbia, Missouri, helping IMSA earn its only win against the #1 nationally ranked team that year. He was a Top 7 finalist at the [[Scobol Solo]], making the wildcard slot as the player with a 5-2 record with the highest [[PPG]]. However, in team play, Saieesh's significant science and geogrpahy overlap with teammates [[Anton Karpovich]] and [[Siva Gangavarapu]] contributed to his mediocre stats throughout the season. When captaining B-team, however, Saieesh would score more impressively, such as at 2013 NAQT State Tournament when he was a top-10 individual scorer.
 
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==College==
 
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===University of Chicago===
 
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Saieesh has kept up his quiz bowl involvement at the college level, playing at the Great Lakes Mirror of ACF Fall and at NAQT SCT alongside former rival [[Morgan Venkus]]; coincidentally, he was the 11th highest scorer overall at both tournaments, and he still received a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin at ACF Fall for being 10th individually in the morning rounds. At the [[2014 ICT]], he and Morgan crusaded to 5th in Division II, a feat which almost didn't happen due to Morgan's unfortunate tardiness (due to his Mom who chose to drop off his sister at a "Toddlers and Tiaras" show before dropping him off at a national championship).
 
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In his later years, Saieesh regularly attends tournaments that take place on the University of Chicago campus.
 
  
 
[[Category:People]]
 
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[[Category:IMSA]]
 
[[Category:IMSA]]
 
[[Category:Chicago]]
 
[[Category:Chicago]]
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[[Category:High school players active in 2010]]
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[[Category:High school players active in 2011]]
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[[Category:High school players active in 2012]]
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[[Category:High school players active in 2013]]
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[[Category:Players active in 2014]]
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[[Category:Players active in 2015]]

Latest revision as of 14:49, 9 February 2020

Saieesh Rao
Noted subjects Geography, Mythology, Chemistry, Biology
Current college University of Chicago (2013-2017)
High school Illinois Math and Science Academy (2010-2013), Stevenson (2009-2010)
Middle school Twin Groves (2007-2009)
Stats HDWhite • NAQT

Saieesh Rao was a former player at the Illinois Math and Science Academy (IMSA) and the University of Chicago. He is notable for being the only person to have played for the IHSA State Championship-winning school in four consecutive years (2010-2013). During his tenure, Saieesh was respected for contributions in varied areas such as geography, science, and mythology, as they reflected "true knowledge" rather than studies specifically for Quiz Bowl.

Saieesh's quizbowl career began at Twin Groves Middle School; during his leadership of the team, it was the only team in the region that could upset the Barrington Station juggernaut.

In his high school career, Saieesh's notable accomplishments include an instrumental role in IMSA's three consecutive IHSA state championships (2011-2013) as well as 3rd-1st-3rd places at the 2011-2013 Illinois Masonic Tournaments, 4th place at the 2013 Illinois NAQT State Championship, and a 13th place finish nationally at the 2011 NAQT HSNCT. Individually, he was a Top 7 finalist at Scobol Solo during his senior year, making the wildcard slot as the player with a 5-2 record with the highest PPG.

Saieesh was a question writer and editor for the IMSANITY tournament series in years 2011-2013.

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