Choate
| Choate Rosemary Hall | |
| |
|---|---|
| Location: Wallingford, CT | |
| Club Presidents | Nathan Nicholas, Joy An |
| National Appearances | PACE NSC: 2021 |
| Program Status | Active |
| School Size | 867 |
| NAQT Page | link |
Choate Rosemary Hall is a private boarding and day school in Wallingford, Connecticut. Its quizbowl club is named choate quiz bowl! and stylized as such, with lowercase letters and an exclamation point. The club mascot is a corgi. The school is known for using creative names, usually animals, to differentiate its teams.
History
choate quiz bowl! was founded in autumn 2019 by co-captains Emma Hermacinski '22 and Anya Miksovsky '20. Its first tournament was HFT XIV, at which it fielded three teams (Choate Axolotl, Choate Pterodactyl, and Choate Ostrich). Around this time, Choate teams were built to be balanced, instead of having an optimized A team and weaker B or C teams. The characteristic animal names reflected this uncertainty by leaving teams' relative abilities unclear.
During the 2020-2021 school year, the cqb! president was Andrew Lee '21, and the captain was Emma Hermacinski. On April 19, 2020, Choate won its first tournament, SCOP Novice Online, as Choate Lava Lizard (Emma Hermacinski, Andrew Lee, Joy An '23, and Nathan Nicholas '23). At the time, this was the largest online tournament in quizbowl history, though that has long since been superseded.
Over the course of the 2020-21 season, Lucas Eggers '21, Andrew Lee, Joy An, and Nathan Nicholas, would go on to become the most successful Choate team yet. In one of their most notable achievements, Eggers, Lee, and An attended the high school invitational mirror of WORKSHOP (forums post). They were joined by Nicholas in placing 10th at the 2021 PACE NSC, the first time Choate attended a nationals tournament.
On 23 January 2021, Choate hosted CORGI (forums post), a tossup only mirror of RAFT II. The tournament was directed by Lucas Eggers, with Joy An as assistant TD, Emma Hermacinski as Head Moderator, and Spencer Bowles '22 as head statistician.
Near the end of the 2021 school year, Nathan Nicholas was elected president and Joy An was elected captain of choate quiz bowl!
On October 30, 2021, Choate Orca, consisting of An, Nicholas, Athena Liu '23, and Henry Ding '24 won LIFT XX. Some argue that the tournament's bracketing system allowed Choate to avoid some powerful opponents, which facilitated this highly unlikely win.
Future
CORGII was recently announced as taking place in-person in January 2022.
Teams
| Team Name | Tournament | Result | Roster | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pterodacyl | HFT XIV | 6th | Chandler Littleford, Jon Geller, Lucas Eggers, Nathan Nicholas | 16 Nov. 2019 |