Canyon Crest

Canyon Crest Academy
Location: San Diego, CA
Club Presidents	Chris Jung, Claire Wang, Yaj Jhajhria
Coaches	Brian Shay (2016-)
State Championships	NAQT: 2012, 2017, 2018
National Championships	none
National Appearances	HSNCT: 2012, 2013, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 NSC: 2016-2019, 2021, 2022, 2023
Program Status	Active
School Size	Unknown
NAQT Page	link

Canyon Crest Academy, often known simply as Canyon Crest or CCA is a prestigious public school in San Diego, California. They are active in the Southern California (SoCal) high school circuit and have consistently ranked as one of the premier teams in the region, along with prestigious programs Del Norte, Arcadia, and Westview. They have consistently fielded teams at both HSNCT and NSC national tournaments. Canyon Crest notably placed 6th at the 2016 NSC and 12th at the 2018 HSNCT.

CCA's annual high school tournament, PPT, is usually held in the fall and on NAQT questions. In 2023 CCA hosted VALORANT, a middle school tournament.

Current players

• Claire Wang
• Yaj Jhajhria
• Andrew Tsui
• Alex Xu
• Shail Bhatmuley
• Lorenzo Lesmes
• Ishank Kadadi
• Austin Xu

...et al.

Former players

• Wesley Zhang (captain)
• Raymond Song (co-pres.)
• Shreyank Kadadi (co-pres.)
• Alan Zhu
• Jasper Chen
• Paul Mola
• Jonathan Hsieh
• Cade McAllister
• Leo Gu
• Andrew Gao

...et al.

2020-21 Season

• Presidents: Cade McAllister (11), Andrew Gao (11), and Chris Jung (10)
• Secretary: Leo Gu (11)
• Treasurer: Yaj Jhajhria (9)

Canyon Crest Academy's 2020-21 Season, like most teams, marked the first fully online QuizBowl season. In addition, this season marked the arrival of freshmen Yaj Jhajhria (Carmel Valley), Andrew Tsui (HK), Hans Yang (Carmel Valley), Aaron Combs (NJ), Inchara J. (Carmel Valley), and Alex Xu (Carmel Valley - Note: Alex did not attend any tournaments until the 2022-23 season). CCAQB also hosted two school events, titled "Raven Jeopardy" and "Teachers v. Students" which helped to draw further participation and member registration.

The team participated in three online tournaments in the fall. Two teams comprising novice players were registered for the 2020 California Novice tournament, played on TAILS, a novice question set. Canyon Crest A finished 6-2 overall with a narrow 405-420 loss to Gunn in the single-elimination formatted playoffs, led by an impressive 88.75 PPG (43/11/9) performance from freshman Aaron Combs (3rd Overall). Canyon Crest B finished 2-6, with Andrew Tsui (9) finished with 65 PPG. At Triton Fall, the first SoCal and two-division circuit tournament (Varsity: LONE-STAR, JV: IS-194A), Canyon Crest A finished 5-5 in an extremely competitive Varsity Division. The team was led by Andrew Gao's 65.38 PPG and 3.54P/G (23/11/6) in 6.5 games, whilst Leo Gu (38.95 PPG), Chris Jung (20.53 PPG), and Kevin Luo (12.11 PPG) made solid contributions. Freshman Aaron Combs also appeared in 6 games, netting a 10 PPG with 2 powers. Canyon Crest B and C appeared in the JV Division, with B going 9-3 behind 52.17 PPG (20/35/10) and 43 PPG (7/35/5) performances from Yaj Jhajhria and Ethan Gross respectively whilst C went 5-6. At ACE IV (played on RAFT II, a Regs-level Set - single division), Canyon Crest A finished 6-3 and T-3rd OVR (2-1 playoffs, tie with Santa Monica B) with 52.57 PPG (20/23/14) and 44.57 PPG (15/18/3) performances by Leo Gu and Chris Jung respectively. This marked CCA's first tournament appearance that season without Andrew Gao and Cade McAllister's entry into the Canyon Crest A roster. Canyon Crest B and C finished 9th and 7th respectively, with Aaron Combs finishing with 85.45 PPG on Canyon Crest C, 2nd overall in the tournament and the team's year-high individual PPG. The tournament was unfourtunately marred by the disqualification of St. Margaret's and Del Norte A.

At Triton Winter IX (Varsity: IS-197, JV: IS-196A), a depleted Canyon Crest A team finished 5-5 although Leo Gu recorded 48 PPG (21/26/19) with a significant number of negs. The absences of starters Chris Jung and Andrew Gao contributed to this performance, although the tournament gave opportunity to freshmen Aaron Combs and Yaj Jhajhria to participate in team A. Canyon Crest B finished 6-2 in the JV Division, with Ethan Gross (11) narrowly falling short of the JV-ban cut with a 49.38 PPG (7/34/10). Canyon Crest A continued to disappoint in their second tournament of 2021 at DNE IV (Varsity: MCMT, JV: Eris), finishing 4-5 albeit with absences from Andrew Gao and Leo Gu. However, CCA B finished 6-3 in the JV Division with Andrew Tsui getting JV-banned with a 53.89 PPG (21/19/4) and Ethan Gross narrowly missing the cut once-again with a 48.46 PPG (16/12/9).

SRIRACHA! (DART I, a Regs+ Set) was arguably Canyon Crest's most important circuit tournament of the 2020-21 season, with the team vying to qualify a second team for the 2021 NSC.