Winston Churchill (MD)

Winston Churchill High School
Location: Potomac, MD
Coaches	Ian Vickery
State Championships	Maryland
National Championships	1989 PAC
Program Status	active
School Size	2500+
NAQT Page	link

Winston Churchill High School, also known as Churchill, is a public high school in Potomac, Maryland.

History

Winston Churchill High School was established in 1964. The majority of its students come from Herbert Hoover Middle School (75%) and Cabin John Middle School (25%)^[1]. The school's current principal is Mr. John W. Taylor. The team is currently coached by Ian Vickery.

During the 2012-2013 School Year, the team was led by senior Captain Prithish David, and supported by senior Ram Jayaraman, and juniors Nikhil Perincherry and Yousuf Khan. During this year, the team won in a local competition known as Quizmaster Challenge, but was unable to secure a victory in their local Montgomery Academic Beltway League. The team also advanced to the final round of the statewide "It's Academic" T.V. Show, a feat not accomplished by the school in over a decade. The team came in second place losing to James Hubert Blake High School.

During the 2013-2014 School Year, the team was led by senior Captain Nikhil Perincherry, and supported by seniors Dominic Singer, Yousuf Khan, and Andrew Crutchfield. During this year the team won two local competitions: the Montgomery Academic Beltway League and MCPSTV's Quizmaster Challenge. The team also participated in It's Academic but lost to Holton Arms High School in the playoff.

During the 2014-2015 School Year, the team was led by senior Captain Yash Nigam, and supported by senior Michelle Yuen and juniors John Dorsey and Shayan Sadegh. During this year the team finished without any prizes. The team lost in the semi-finals round of It's Academic. This was also the final year in which Winston Churchill High competed on Quizmaster Challenge, for the show was cancelled after the 2014-2015 season.

During the 2015-2016 School Year, the team was led by senior Captain John Dorsey, and supported by seniors Shayan Sadegh and Mark Weinstein, and sophomore Jiawei Bai. During this year the team finished without any prizes, although came very close in multiple tournaments. The team once again lost in the semi-finals round of It's Academic, to Walt Whitman High School.

During the 2016-2017 School Year, the team was led by junior Captain Jiawei Bai, and supported by seniors David Miller and John Sarihan as well as junior Pranav Tandon. In October 2016, the team came in 3rd place at an invitational tournament hosted by James Hubert Blake High School. The team lost in the semi-finals round of It's Academic to Blake High School.

It was also during this school year that Winston Churchill High School began actively participating in pyramidal quizbowl, after having previously attended some tournaments in the late 2000s. The team qualified for the HSNCT and finished t-97th after being knocked out in the first round.

During the 2017-2018 School Year, the team was led by senior Captain Jiawei Bai, supported by senior Pranav Tandon, junior Melanie Heller, and sophomores Manu Sundar and Jonathan Silverman. The team was eliminated from It's Academic in the play-off round against Richard Montgomery High School.

The club competed in three local tournaments, but failed to qualify for the HSNCT. At their first NSC, Winston Churchill placed 74th.

During the 2018-2019 School Year, the team once again failed to qualify for the HSNCT, but attended on a wildcard bid, once again finishing t-97th. However, they improved on their NSC performance, placing 65th.

During the 2019-2020 School Year, the team won their first local tournament, Arundel Invitational. Due to the pandemic, no national tournaments were held.

During the 2020-2021 School Year, the team remained active. At the HSNCT, the team finished t-72nd. Due to lead scorer Stevie Miller being missing for half the tournament, the team once again finished 74th.

During the 2021-2022 School Year, sophomores Alvin Guo and Kevin Peng, the two players that would make up the core scoring in future years, both began actively playing. Alvin Guo had participated in a couple of tournaments the previous year, and Kevin Peng was a History Bowl convert. At a cross country practice, Kevin Peng also introduced quizbowl to junior Andy Yu, which piqued his interest and caused him to begin attending practice. However, Andy would not find time to attend a tournament until the 2022 NSC.

Winston Churchill would reach t-24th at the HSNCT, the first time they had survived more than one round, and the first time they did not start in the elimination bracket. The team would also achieve its highest National History Bowl placement of 8th. At the NSC, Winston Churchill's A team missed the Tier I playoff pool brackets in a 10-point loss to University Lab, due to Alvin Guo misremembering the color (yellow, despite looking orange) of the bed of the Bedroom in Arles after having viewed it at the Art Institute of Chicago the day prior. The A team finished 37th, and the B team finished 43rd.

With the graduation of Stevie Miller, Alvin Guo and Kevin Peng would become the main scorers of the 2022-2023 School Year. At the end of the previous year, the club was down to essentially three active members. However, thanks to a massive outreach campaign involving flashy posters and aggressive forcing of buzzers into other students' hands, the club gained a dozen enthusiastic members. A few weeks into the school year, new member Ulden Gao introduced quizbowl to freshman Aaron Zhou, whose talent was noticed after attending a Discord packet reading. After showing up to practice and aggressive convincing by Kevin Peng, Aaron Zhou attended his first tournament, and, along with Andy Yu, would join Alvin and Kevin on Winston Churchill's A team for the year. The team would go on to win a second regional tournament, the 2023 TJIAT.

Winston Churchill had a rough HSNCT, finishing t-49th and t-97th despite the A team being ranked 30th on Groger Ranks. However, their fortunes took a turn for the better at the 2023 NSC. The team almost failed to make it out of the prelims, after a loss to Fair Grove and a win by only 10 points against Johns Creek B. The game came down to the last tossup, after Kevin failing to pull "Olympia." Thanks to Aaron previously muttering "Bin Laden" on a bonus part, the team managed to stay afloat in the Tier I playoff pool. Winston Churchill A faced a tough playoff bracket, having to play Belmont, Johns Creek, Kinkaid, Troy, and William Fremd. In an upset victory that came down to a tossup 20 buzz from Andy on the golden ratio, the team beat Kinkaid, and would upset Belmont the round after. They ended the day with a 4-1 record in playoffs after losing to Troy, a team that they had never beaten over the season. The team would head into the championship bracket with a carryover win and a goal to win at least one game.

The team would outperform their goal on Sunday, again creating upsets against Hunter and Rockford Auburn, with the game against the latter team going into overtime. Alvin's answer of King Lear's daughters on the overtime tossup was only possible due to him seeing similarities between the information clued and the plot details of the Kurosawa movie Ran, which was based on King Lear. They would later lose a game to St. Mark's on a protest, and lose again in a tiebreaker match to finish 6th, Winston Churchill's highest placement of all time at the NSC. The B team would end up finishing t-38th, nearly tying the performance of last year's A team.

The 2023-2024 School Year saw Alvin and Kevin return for their final year of high school quizbowl, accompanied by sophomore Aaron Zhou with Bernie Jin or Tyler Song as the final A team member. Because of other obligations, the team was only able to play full at one tournament, the JHU Booster Shot mirror, where they placed 3rd. During the season, a team of mostly B team players would place 4th at a Montgomery Blair-hosted tournament behind only two strong Richard Montgomery teams and a TJ team.

Winston Churchill's goal going into the 2024 HSNCT was to achieve its club's highest placement, meaning that they would have to survive at least five playoff rounds. The team went 6-1 on Saturday, losing only to Northmont. In the Sunday morning prelim matches, the team went 1-2. After a win against Poolesville and a crushing defeat against Buffalo Grove, the team survived two close games against Northmont and Centennial, both of which came down to the last tossup. Thanks to an upset, the team did not have to face the eventual 4th-place NSC team Hastings, and won against Santa Monica before a tremendous loss to Richard Montgomery. In the end, Winston Churchill placed t-8th, achieving its initial goal.

At the NSC, Winston Churchill's A team managed to go 5-0 in the prelims, a first for the club. However, because of a change in rebracketing protocol, the team ended up in a death bracket with Kinkaid, Richard Montgomery, and St. Mark's. After a somewhat close loss to St. Mark's and the second upset in two years against Kinkaid, the team's championship bracket hopes were crushed in another nationals loss to Richard Montgomery. Playing in the 9-16 bracket, the team won against Lambert and Innovation Academy, but lost their other matches in close games. In a 4-way tie for 12th place, the team won their first tiebreaker match against Hoover, but lost their second match to Innovation Academy to place 13th overall.

Competitions

The WCHS Quizbowl team's main focus is on pyramidal quizbowl tournaments, but also participates in the local Montgomery Academic Beltway League and It's Academic.

Notable Members

• Jordan Ellerberg '89
• Derek Gritz '12
• Sam Gross '12
• Christopher Hazard '12
• Prithish David '13
• Nikhil Perincherry '14
• Yash Nigam '15
• Michelle Yuen '15
• John Dorsey '16
• Shayan Sadegh '16
• Mark Weinstein '16
• Jawei Bai '18
• Manu Sundar '20
• Stevie Miller '22
• Andy Yu '23
• Alvin Guo '24
• Kevin Peng '24

Succession of Titles

Panasonic Academic Challenge Champion
Preceded by	Year	Succeeded by
Rockville	1989	Ballard