By Jon Matte
On Saturday March 4, members of the GFA Quiz Team participated in the Connecticut History Bowl and Bee in Newtown. It had been four years since GFA participated in this tournament, but the results were worth the wait.
In the History Bowl, GFA's Varsity Team consisting of AJ Tenser '23, Jamie Davis '25, Arya Mattoo '25, and Tristan Ebrahimi '26 made it to the semifinal round before falling to Wilton High School, a one-student team ranked one of the best in the country.
GFA's all-freshman Junior Varsity Team consisting of Nate Bouchard ‘26, Peter Garrett ‘26, Brett Humphrey ‘26, Sean Kilcullen ‘26, and Oliver Rohrbasser ‘26 completed the preliminary rounds with a spotless 5-0 record, featuring two wins on the last question of the match. Defeated in the finals by Fordham Preparatory School in a revenge match, GFA finished as the number one JV team in Connecticut. This qualified them for the National History Bowl in Washington, D.C. this April.
In the individual JV History Bee, Davis ‘25, Kilcullen ‘26, and Bouchard ‘26 qualified for the playoff round, with Kilcullen ranked as the number one seed after the preliminary rounds. In the end, Davis ‘25 took home the third place medal, and all three qualified for the National History Bee in D.C..
Additionally, there were written tests in various subjects, and the GFA crew did very well. On the Geography exam, Tenser ‘23 finished with the second-highest score in the tournament, qualifying both him and Bouchard ‘26 for the Geography Nationals. Based on their scores on the U.S. History and Political Science exams, both Kilcullen and Humphrey also qualified for Nationals in those fields.
It was a rigorous and exciting day for the Quiz Team, and we offer many thanks to the team parents for their support and transportation assistance.
Quiz-que Pro Omni-Buzz!