A team of juniors representing Westwood High School held its own on a national stage on Saturday, May 23, at the NAQT 2026 High School National Championship Tournament in Atlanta, Georgia, following the team’s strong qualifying performance at a regional quiz bowl tourney in Belmont in March.
Captained by Yuhan Chen and Hayato Moy, with team members Alex Balaeff, Jacob Cicerchia, and Duanmu Jiang, the Westwood High School team finished in 154th place, near the middle of a competitive group of 320 elite teams from 36 states.
The team went 5-5 in preliminary rounds. It was on the brink of elimination when it defeated Aurora High School from Ohio in round 15 to stay alive. Following that win, Westwood lost to Brentwood, a high school team from Tennessee. That loss ended Westwood’s shot at the playoffs, but not without first confirming that Westwood High School’s quiz bowl program can compete on the national stage.
Last year was the first time that a team from Westwood High School qualified for the NAQT national championship. The team made it to the playoffs and finished the competition in 65th place. Both the 2026 and 2025 teams were coached by Jared Sargent, a biology teacher at Westwood High School.
Coach Sargent described the 2026 team as a group of self-starters and goal-setters. Every Friday, the team engages in practice rounds of the game, he said, noting there is also studying on weekends. Members each chose certain topics to study, becoming the team’s authority on a given topic.
National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT), the tournament organizer, offers the following question as an example of the type of challenge high school quiz bowl competitors may face at the national level:
To qualify to compete nationally, the Westwood team finished in the top 10 to 15 percent of the Belmont Academic Invitational, said Coach Sargent.
The Westwood High School team was one of seven Massachusetts teams to compete in the national championship this year. As a group, the Massachusetts schools appear to have performed well, based on their overall finishing places. An exceptional showing was turned in by the Lexington A team, that finished in second place behind tournament champion, Adlai E. Stevenson High School A team, from Lincolnshire, Illinois.
Massachusetts schools took the following places the final standings of the national championship:
Lexington A - 2nd place
Belmont A - 21st place
Belmont B - 97th place
Westwood- 154th place
Lexington B - 172nd place
Brookline - 187th place
Waltham - 217th place
Quiz bowl is a competitive, academic interscholastic activity for two teams of four students competing at a time. Teams typically compete in 10 games per day, with each game consisting of 20 questions which can cover science, math, history, literature, mythology, geography social science, current events, sports, and popular culture. The matches feature a blend of individual competition and team collaboration.
Thanks to National Academic Quiz Tournaments for sharing this news with Westwood Minute.
Patchy rain nearby, with a high of 73 and low of 52 degrees. Sunny during the morning, patchy rain nearby in the afternoon and evening, clear overnight.
Thank goodness that is over. What a waste of time, energy and resources for both the Town and the Land Trustthat could have been spent so much more productively.
69° and Partly Cloudy