Thomas Jefferson (VA)

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
Location: Alexandria, VA
Coaches	John Laffey
State Championships	1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017 Scholastic Bowl; 2002, 2005, 2016, 2017 NAQT
National Championships	2005 PACE; 2003 NAQT, 2004 NAQT, 2005 NAQT, 2008 NAQT; Panasonic
National Appearances	HSNCT: 2001-2017 PACE NSC: 2002-2017 NHBB: 2015-2017 TOC: 1996-2000
Program Status	Active
School Size	1792
NAQT Page	link

The Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, often known simply as Thomas Jefferson or TJ, is a school located in Alexandria, VA. It is a state chartered magnet school and is known for being highly selective. TJ has a notable force in Virginia and national quizbowl since the early 1990s, especially in the period from 2003 to 2005.

Thomas Jefferson hosts at least one high school tournament each year, usually drawing all the elite teams in the DC region as well as teams from farther afield.

State championship performance

Since the Virginia High School League established its Scholastic Bowl championship in 1998, Thomas Jefferson has won the group AAA title eleven times (1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012, and 2013) and finished second in the other five years. After the 2014 VHSL Realignment, Thomas Jefferson won the the 5A title in 2016 and 2017, coming in second in 2014 and 2015. Thomas Jefferson also won the title at the 2002, 2005, 2016, and 2017 NAQT Virginia Championship. They finished second in 2001, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015, and 2016.

B teams

Thomas Jefferson is notable for fielding strong B teams, including three B teams which finished second at NAQT states and a 2005 B team which finished in the top 10 at NAQT nationals and in the final four at PACE nationals (with TJ A winning both of those tournaments). In 2004, TJ B was ranked second after the preliminary rounds in both NAQT nationals and PACE nationals, but choked in the playoff rounds and finished fifth at PACE and outside the top ten at NAQT. In 2011, their B team placed T-8th at HSNCT and 16th at PACE nationals. In 2016, TJ's B team came second at NAQT states after losing the first match of a disadvantaged final against their A team. At the 2017 POMMSS Mirror at Gar-Field, TJ's B team upset their A team in the preliminary rounds, but lost the final to them.

Nationals performance

Thomas Jefferson won the Panasonic national championship in 1994 and contributed several players to the Virginia all-star teams which won in 2003, 2004, and 2005.

Thomas Jefferson finished second at the PACE NSC in 2003 and 2004 and won the tournament in 2005. Besides those TJ teams, only State College at the 1998 to 2001 and 2010 to 2011 PACE NSCs, LASA at the 2013 and 2014 HSNCTs, and Hunter at the 2016 and 2017 HSNCTs have repeated as the champion of any major national championship tournament.

Thomas Jefferson won three straight NAQT national championships, from 2003 to 2005. This included a 40-game winning streak sandwiched between a round 10 prelim loss to Dunbar in 2003 and a round 3 loss to Charter B in 2006.

On May 25, 2008, the Thomas Jefferson A team defeated Wilmington Charter A in the 2nd and deciding game of an advantaged final to claim their 4th NAQT National Championship.

Thomas Jefferson A placed second at the 2003 NSC, the 2004 NSC, the 2008 NSC, the 2016 National Junior Varsity History Bowl, the 2016 HSNCT, and the 2017 National Varsity History Bowl.

2005 team

Widely considered the greatest high school team of all time, the 2005 Thomas Jefferson A team had a regular lineup of Sam Lederer, Dan Wright, Will Sullivan, and Jacob Oppenheim. When playing in tossup/bonus formats with that full lineup, TJ A went undefeated for the entire year, believed to be the first team to do so while playing a significantly competitive schedule.

While five other teams have won both major national championships (NAQT HSNCT[1] and PACE NSC) in the same year, Thomas Jefferson's 2005 team remains the only one to go undefeated at both tournaments.

Current Roster

• Nishanth Anand
• Rohan Hegde
• Alex Howe
• Grant Li
• Walker Haynes
• James Kuang
• Prithvi Nathan
• Sohom Paul
• Aditya Sarkar
• Andrew Wang
• Kevin Wang
• William Wang
• Benjamin Xu
• Fred Zhang
• Julia Zhou

Notable alumni

• Dennis Loo - Class of 1994
• Andrew Yaphe - Class of 1994
• Andy Goss - Class of 1998
• Leo Wolpert - Class of 2001
• S. R. Sidarth - Class of 2003
• Sam Lederer - Class of 2005
• Jacob Oppenheim - Class of 2005
• Will Sullivan - Class of 2005
• Dan Wright - Class of 2005
• Evan Silberman - Class of 2007
• Phil Graves - Class of 2008
• Naren Tallapragada - Class of 2009
• Stephen Eltinge - Class of 2011
• James Bradbury - Class of 2012
• Raynor Kuang - Class of 2013
• Ryan Golant - Class of 2016

Tournament Results

2015-2016 Academic Year

Date	Tournament	Question Set	Team	Record	Rank	Stats
10/3	Johns Hopkins Novice	NAQT IS-149A	A	6-3	3/19	[2]
			B	5-4	7/19	[3]
			C	2-7	12/19	[4]
			D	7-2	5/19	[5]
10/31	Maryland Fall	Maryland Fall 2015	A	8-2	2/21	[6]
			B	7-3	7/21	[7]
			C	5-5	11/21	[8]
10/31	Georgetown Invitational	NAQT IS-148	A	9-3	2/14	[9]
			B	8-3	3/14	[10]
			C	7-3	7/14	[11]
11/7	ACF Fall	ACF Fall 2015	A	11-2	1/8	[12]
			B	3-10	7/8	[13]
11/8	Centennial Inviational (Varsity)	NAQT IS-151A	A	7-2	2/30	[14]
			B	5-4	6/30	[15]
	Centennial Inviational (Novice)		C	8-1	2/36	[16]
			D	3-5	12/36	[17]
			E	5-4	32/36	[18]
11/14	Washington DC History Bowl (Varsity)	NHBB C-Set	A	2-3	8/10	[19]
	Washington DC History Bowl (Junior Varsity)		B	5-0	1/18
			C	4-1	3/18
12/5	VCU Winter VIII	NAQT IS-152	A	9-2	3/24	[20]
			B	9-2	7/24	[21]
12/19	Richard Montgomery Fall Novice	SCOP Novice 6	A	10-0	1/24	[22]
			B	5-5	4/24	[23]
			C	8-2	7/24	[24]
			D	6-4	9/24	[25]
1/9	VHSL Capitol Conference 13	VHSL Conferences 2016		7-0	1/8
1/30	VHSL 5A North Regional	VHSL Regionals 2016		4-0	1/8
2/20	Battle for Mid-Atlantic Dominance	NAQT SCT-16DII	A	12-3	1/12	[26]
			B	2-12	12/12	[27]
2/27	VHSL 5A State	VHSL States 2016		3-0	1/4	[28]
3/12	Virginia State History Bowl Championships (Varsity)	NHBB A-Set	A	4-1	2/8	[29]
	Virginia State History Bowl Championships (Junior Varsity)		B	6-0	1/4
3/19	NAQT Virginia State Championship	NAQT IS-156	A	9-2	1/20	[30]
			B	9-3	2/20	[31]
			C	6-4	7/20	[32]
4/9	Northern Virginia History Bowl (Junior Varsity)	NHBB B-Set	A	3-1	2/6	[33]
	STORM	HFT X	A	10-0	1/16	[34]
			B	8-2	5/16	[35]
4/16	Johns Hopkins Invitational	NAQT IS-154	A	10-2	2/24	[36]
			B	6-5	5/24	[37]
4/23-4/24	National History Bowl (Varsity)	NHBB Nationals 2016	A	6-4	38/160	[38]
	National History Bowl (Junior Varsity)		A	14-2	2/102	[39]
			B	8-2	38/102	[40]
4/30	VCU Season Finale	CALI	A	7-3	3/21	[41]
5/28-5/29	2016 HSNCT	HSNCT-16	A	15-5	2/272	[42]
			B	8-5	34/272	[43]
			C	6-5	77/272	[44]
6/4-6/5	2016 NSC	2016 PACE NSC	A	15-4	3/96	[45]
			B	9-9	20/96	[46]

2016-2017 Academic Year

Date	Tournament	Question Set	Team	Record	Rank	Stats
10/15	VCU Fall VIII	NAQT IS-158	A	12-0	1/12	[47]
			B	9-2	3/12	[48]
10/29	Johns Hopkins Novice	NAQT IS-159A	A	4-6	16/30	[49]
			B	9-1	3/30	[50]
11/6	Centennial Inviational (Varsity)	NAQT IS-161A	A	11-0	1/24	[51]
			B	7-4	4/24	[52]
	Centennial Inviational (Junior Varsity)		C	11-0	1/42	[53]
			D	4-6	37/42	[54]
11/12	Cavalier Classic	NAQT IS-160	A	11-0	1/36	[55]
			B	9-2	3/36	[56]
			C	7-4	5/36	[57]
12/3	Washington, DC Metro History Bowl (Varsity)	NHBB C-Set	A	8-0	1/14	[58]
	Washington, DC Metro History Bowl (Junior Varsity)		B	7-1	2/12
			C	4-2	5/12
			D	5-2	3/12
12/10	GSAC XXIV	GSAC XXIV	A	9-3	3/28	[59]
			B	7-4	7/28	[60]
1/14	VHSL Capitol Conference 13	VHSL Conferences 2017		5-0	1/6
2/4	VHSL 5A North Regional	VHSL Regionals 2017		4-0	1/8
	Northern Virginia History Bowl (Varsity)	NHBB B-Set	A	6-1	3/10	[61]
			B	3-3	5/10
	Northern Virginia History Bowl (Junior Varsity)		C	6-2	2/10
			D	4-2	5/10
			E	0-5	9/10
2/25	VHSL 5A State	VHSL States 2017		3-0	1/4
3/4	Capital Region Championships History Bowl (Varsity)	NHBB A-Set	A	5-2	2/8	[62]
			B	2-3	6/8
	Capital Region Championships History Bowl (Junior Varsity)		C	7-0	1/8
			D	2-3	6/8
3/11	POMMSS	POMMSS	A	9-1	1/10	[63]
			B	9-1	2/10	[64]
			C	8-2	3/10	[65]
4/1	NAQT Virginia State Championship	NAQT IS-166	A	11-0	1/34	[66]
			B	8-1	3/34	[67]
			C	5-4	7/34	[68]
			D	4-6	21/34	[69]
			E	5-6	32/34	[70]
			F	3-8	33/34	[71]
4/22-4/23	National History Bowl (Varsity)	NHBB Nationals 2017	A	15-2	2/144	[72]
			B	8-2	50/144	[73]
	National History Bowl (Junior Varsity)		A	14-2	6/108	[74]
			B	4-6	60/108	[75]
			C	3-7	84/108	[76]
4/29	Georgetown Spring	HFT XI	A	11-1	1/10	[77]
			B	8-3	3/10	[78]
			C	6-5	5/10	[79]
			D	2-10	9/10	[80]
5/27-5/28	2017 HSNCT	HSNCT-17	A	13-5	4/304	[81]
			B	8-3	25/304	[82]
			C	6-5	65/304	[83]
6/10-6/11	2017 NSC	2017 PACE NSC	A	15-4	4/96	[84]
			B	10-5	29/36	[85]
			C	9-6	74/96	[86]

2017-2018 Academic Year

Date	Tournament	Question Set	Team	Record	Rank	Stats
9/30	2017 Maryland Fall @ UMD	2017 Maryland Fall	A	11-0	1/24	[87]
			B	8-3	8/24	[88]
			C	6-5	10/24	[89]
			D	4-7	20/24	[90]
			E	6-5	14/24	[91]
			F	5-6	19/24	[92]

Succession of titles

PACE NSC Champion
Preceded by	Year	Succeeded by
Maggie Walker	2005	Raleigh Charter

NAQT High School National Championship Tournament Champions 1999-2008 1999: Detroit Catholic Central  · 2000: State College A  · 2001: Detroit Catholic Central  · 2002: St. John's  · 2003: Thomas Jefferson  · 2004: Thomas Jefferson  · 2005: Thomas Jefferson  · 2006: Richard Montgomery  · 2007: Maggie Walker  · 2008: Thomas Jefferson 2009-2019 2009: Wilmington Charter  · 2010: Maggie Walker  · 2011: State College A  · 2012: Bellarmine A  · 2013: LASA A  · 2014: LASA A · 2015: Arcadia A  · 2016: Hunter A  · 2017: Hunter A  · 2018: Plano West A  · 2019: Beavercreek 2021- 2021: Barrington  · 2022: Detroit Catholic Central A  · 2023: Barrington A  · 2024: Barrington Other HSNCT Record Book · 1998 HSNCT

Succession of minor titles

Panasonic Academic Challenge Champion
Preceded by	Year	Succeeded by
Torrey Pines	1994	Florida All-Stars