Lexington (MA)

Lexington Minutemen
Location: Lexington, MA
Club Presidents	Nick Rommel, Megha Prasad
Coaches	Danielle Israel
State Championships	NAQT MA: 2015, 2016, 2017 NAQT New England: 2013
National Championships	None
National Appearances	HSNCT: 2013-2017 NSC: 2016 NHBB: 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017
Program Status	Active
School Size	2,154
NAQT Page	link

Lexington High School is a public high school in Lexington, MA. Its quizbowl team was formed in 2012, but it began competing in National History Bee and Bowl the year before in earnest. Lexington's Zaroug Jaleel had played NHBB solo in 2010-2011. In 2015-16, Lexington A enjoyed a very successful season, placing fifth at NAQT HSNCT. In 2016-17, Lexington A followed up their success by winning ninth at NAQT HSNCT.

2010-2011

Zaroug Jaleel soloed the Massachusetts State History Bee and Bowl, winning the JV Bowl and coming in second in the Varsity Bee.

2011-2012

A full Lexington team began competing in NHBB. They competed at the Massachusetts State, where they were the runner-up, and Long Island History Bee and Bowls, as well as Nationals, where they did not make playoffs.

2012-2013

Lexington began competing in quizbowl events in Massachusetts. The A team of seniors Zaroug Jaleel, Patrick Neal, Brandon Nguyen, and junior Jonathan Tidore (who would leave LHS for MIT following his junior year) went undefeated to win MIT Fall and qualified for HSNCT there. They then finished 3rd at Yale FaCT and missed playoffs at Harvard Fall Tournament after losing to LASA B and Ridgewood in prelims. They then won the Connecticut Invitational and NAQT New England Regionals. The team went 6-4 in prelims at HSNCT and ended up finishing tied for 33rd. The B team finished 4th in a group with Seven Lakes and Wayzata at Harvard Fall Tournament and finished 4-9 at NAQT New England Regionals. In NHBB, the varsity team won the Massachusetts State Bowl championship, and finished 3rd at both Boston Area Fall and the New England Championship, which had no JV division, and which Bethlehem (NY) crashed and won. A 2-man varsity team did not make it past prelims at Nationals. The JV team won the Boston Area Fall and Massachusetts State Bowls, and lost in the round of 16 at Nationals. In the Bee, senior Patrick Neal won the Massachusetts State varsity championship, while freshman Duncan McCallum won the JV.

2013-2014

The team did not compete until Harvard Fall Tournament, where neither the A team or the B team made it out of prelims. This was the only time Lexington fielded a B team all year. Two weeks later, they qualified for HSNCT after finishing 2nd at the Central MA Fall Tournament. They finished 3rd at WHAT at Williams, where a rivalry with AMSA began to develop, then finished 4th at Connecticut Invitational after losing to AMSA and Darien in playoffs. The team won the HSAPQ Massachusetts Quizbowl Championship East Regional, losing once in prelims, but beating AMSA in playoffs. However, they finished fourth at the state tournament. Lexington's Colin Cantwell, Reggie Luo, and Arjun Sarathy made the 2014 Massachusetts NASAT team. They will be fielding one team of seven people at HSNCT. In NHBB, the varsity team won the Massachusetts State Championship after a 180-0 fourth quarter comeback against eventual JV national semifinalist AMSA, but finished 2nd to them in the Boston Area Fall and New England Bowl Championships. The JV team won the Boston Area Fall and the New England Bowls. Junior Arjun Sarathy finished 2nd in both the varsity Boston Area Fall and New England Bees, while freshman Colin Cantwell won the JV Bee at the New England Championships, with sophomore Duncan McCallum finishing second to him. Lexington lost their last game to finish 5-5 at the 2014 HSNCT.

2014-2015

Lexington A went undefeated at both the MIT Fall and Yale FAcT tournaments to win both. Lexington B missed playoffs at MIT Fall, but had a much more successful performance at FAct, coming in 4th and qualifying for nationals. Lexington A then won the Central MA Fall Tournament and Northeastern Academic Tournament, continuing their undefeated streak. The B team finished 4th at Central MA Fall and 5th at Northeastern. A C team made its debut at Central MA Fall. The A team finished 6th at the Harvard Fall Tournament but won the Boston Area Fall History Bee and Bowl the next week. In the second semester, Lexington A lost on the final tossup to Phillips Exeter in the Massachusetts State History Bee and Bowl, though without their full A team. They finished 3rd at BHSAT and won Connecticut Invitational VI and the HSAPQ Massachusetts Quizbowl Championship.

At NHBB, Lexington went on a successful run, defeating 2 seed IMSA through a tiebreaker to advance to the quarterfinals, where the team lost to LASA to finish t-5th. At NAQT HSNCT, Lexington went 8-2 on Saturday in the prelims, with one of their wins coming against eventual third place finisher DCC A. However, Lexington lost its first two games of the playoffs to finish t-53.

2015-2016

Lexington A tied for fifth at NAQT HSNCT, while Lexington B finished 134th. Lexington A was composed of Colin Cantwell, Devin Shang, Reggie Luo, and Duncan McCallum, while Lexington B was composed of Will Marshall, Nick Rommel, Kyle Doney, and Brendan Cantwell. Lexington A finished runners-up in 2016 NHBB nationals.

2016-2017

Lexington A won most tournaments they attended, including the NHBB and NAQT State Championships, ATHENA, and the Phillips Academy Fall Tournament, even some without top scorer and captain Colin Cantwell. Lexington B was also one of the best teams in the state. At NHBB, Lexington's Varsity team placed 16th, while the JV team placed 15th. Nick Rommel placed second in the Varsity division of the International Geography Bee. Colin Cantwell reached the semifinals of the US History Bee, and Nick Rommel was eliminated in the semifinals of the JV History Bee.

Lexington took two teams to 2017 NAQT HSNCT. Exceeding most expectations, Lexington A went 12-3 and placed ninth, eliminated by Thomas Jefferson in Round 22. They tied for the most powers in a playoff game at the 2017 HSNCT, with 10. Lexington B barely missed out on playoffs, going 5-5.

Roster

2017 NAQT HSNCT teams

A team

Colin Cantwell (President)

Nick Rommel (VP)

Charles Yang

Krishna Suraj

B team

Brendan Cantwell

David Arena

Parth Raj Purohit

Stephen Alessandro

Lexington usually fields a "C team" and "D team", but their rosters fluctuate more.

2016 NAQT HSNCT teams

A team

Colin Cantwell

Devin Shang

Reggie Luo

Duncan McCallum

B Team

Will Marshall

Nick Rommel

Kyle Doney

Brendan Cantwell

Alumni

Zaroug Jaleel '13-Tufts (co-founder)

Brandon Nguyen '13-Northeastern (active)

Patrick Neal '13-UMass (active)

Jonathan Tidor '14-MIT

Pavi Chari '13-Northeastern (active)

Vikas Shiva '13-Vanderbilt (co-founder)

David Yuan '14-Carnegie Mellon (2013-2014 Quizbowl Captain)

Arjun Sarathy '15-Cornell (2013-2014 History Bowl Captain)

Reggie Luo '16-UMass Amherst

Devin Shang '16-Pomona College (2015-2016 captain)

Duncan McCallum '16-Dartmouth College (2015-2016 captain)

Kyle Doney '16-Union College

Will Marshall '16-Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Colin Cantwell '17-University of Virginia

Krishna Suraj '17-Harvard

Stephen Alessandro '18-University of Michigan

Nick Rommel '19-UChicago

David Arena '19-Harvard

Brendan Cantwell '19-Duke

Megha Prasad '19-American University

Parth Purohit '19-NYU