Ladue
| Ladue Rams | |
| |
|---|---|
| Location: Ladue, MO | |
| Coaches | Jonah Krueger |
| State Championships | 2012, 2013, 2018, 2019 NAQT 2006, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2018, 2019 MSHSAA Class 4 |
| National Championships | 2013 NSC, 2013 NASAT, 2017 NSC (JV) |
| National Appearances | HSNCT: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2019 PACE: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 NHBB: 2019 (JV) |
| Program Status | Active |
| School Size | 1319 |
| NAQT Page | link |
Ladue Horton Watkins High School ("LADUE??! for short) is a public high school in the St. Louis, Missouri metropolitan area.
Ladue won the Class 4 MSHSAA state titles in 2006 and 2009 despite attending almost no tournaments, doing so due to knowledge gained in the real world and the relative weakness of the Missouri canon. After teams led by Max Schindler and Ben Zhang began attending tournaments regularly, Ladue dominated Missouri quizbowl and became one of the best teams in the nation, winning two national titles in 2013.
The team experienced a period of decline after 2014, but returned to prominence in 2016-2017 when it won the national JV title and once again became the dominant team in Missouri.
State Dominance
Beginning with Max Schindler's improvements in the 2009-2010 season, Ladue proved itself as the undisputed top Missouri team of the first half of the 2010's, winning the vast majority of Missouri tournaments they attended from 2011-2014, often doing so undefeated. Ladue won the MSHSAA Class 4 state championship in 2011-2014, and won the NAQT Missouri Qualifier when it attended that tournament in 2012 and 2013.
Following Ben Zhang's graduation in 2014, Ladue did not even advance to the district playoffs in 2015, breaking a streak of 9 consecutive State appearances. However, in 2016, freshmen Moses Schindler and Raj Paul led Ladue to a 2nd place finish at the MSHSAA Class 4 state championship behind Hickman. In 2017, Ladue once again finished 2nd at MSHSAA State, this time behind Washington.
Return to Dominance
In the 2017-2018 season, Ladue once again rose to dominate the Missouri circuit, this time with Raj Paul and Akshay Govindan as their leading scorers. They went undefeated to any in-state team the entire season, winning nearly all of their tournaments including the NAQT Missouri Qualifier and the MSHSAA state championship.
This dominance continued into the 2018-2019 season, during which Ladue earned their fourth NAQT state title and eighth MSHSAA state title, with only a single loss to an in-state team that year to St. Joseph Central.
2019-2020: A New Era?
With most of Ladue's A team having graduated, the future of its hegemony going into the 2019-20 season remains uncertain. Led by top scorers Louis Li and Eric Yin, the A team managed to defend its title at Mizzou Fall, yet failed to go undefeated like in previous years due to losing a playoff match to Poplar Bluff by 5 points. They subsequently failed to make the superplayoffs at WUFAT after losing to the STL Patriots and Uni Lab, finishing 5th despite having the 3rd highest stats overall.
Nationals Performances
A team of Max Schindler, Zev Kane, Ben Zhang, Jeremy Novack, and Haohang Xu tied for 13th at the 2011 HSNCT, where Max was an All-Star. Ladue tied for 5th at the 2012 HSNCT and placed 10th at the 2012 NSC.
In 2013, a Ladue A team of Schindler, Zhang, Xu, and Jialin Ding placed 2nd at HSNCT to LASA A, and Ladue B tied for 21st after going 7-3 in the prelims. The same Ladue A team won the 2013 NSC after defeating LASA A twice in a row, and was selected to be the Missouri NASAT team, winning the tournament in the first game of an advantaged final with Texas.
In 2014, a Ladue A team of Zhang, Ding, Kisan Thakkar, and Michael Prablek finished fourth at NSC, with two losses to St. John's and a 30 point loss to tournament champion LASA A. A team of Zhang, Ding, Thakkar, and Sam Crowder then finished fourth at HSNCT, with a 420-345 loss to Arcadia A and a 375-365 loss to LASA B.
In 2016, a Ladue A team of Raj Paul, Royce Dong, Michael Muzinich, and Logan Page finished 56th at NSC, and the Ladue B team of Akshay Govindan, Glen Morgenstern, Will Gorski, Jack Madden, Jeffrey Wang, and Charlie Loitman placed 85th.
In 2017, a Ladue A all-sophomore team of Raj Paul, Akshay Govindan, Moses Schindler, and Jack Madden earned the JV title at NSC, finishing in 27th place overall.
In 2018, a Ladue A team of Raj, Akshay, Moses, and Will Gorski finished 15th at NSC, while the Ladue B team of Charlie Loitman, Jack Madden, Eric Yin, and Louis Li placed 71st.
In 2019, a Ladue A team of Raj, Akshay, and Louis Li tied for 19th at HSNCT, after going undefeated in the prelims except for a loss against eventual champion Beavercreek. The same Ladue A team with the addition of Moses (who had been sick during HSNCT) placed 11th at NSC after close losses to Strake Jesuit (by 30 points) and Miami Valley (by 60 points).
Additionally, Ladue attended its first History Bowl nationals in 2019, where an all-sophomore team of Louis Li, Matthew Levy, and Manar Fajors placed 27th in the JV division.
Records
MSHSAA State
Ladue's incredible talent, combined with a switch to NAQT questions in the 2011 season, led the team to shatter many MSHSAA State championship tournament records.
- Max Schindler's 135 tossups (of 250 possible) in the 2011 MSHSAA State Championship broke Mike Wehrman's longstanding record of 133 set in 1997.
- Ladue set a new record for most points scored throughout the five round State tournament in three consecutive years, breaking the previous record of 2585 with scores of 2840 in 2011, 3360 in 2012, and 3500 in 2013 (700 of 900 points per game). Ladue's total scores of 3020 points in 2014 and 2910 points in 2018 gives Ladue the top 5 spots on this list through 2018.
- Ladue broke the single-game record of 640 points that stood for sixteen years three times in 2012, with a high score of 750 (of 900 possible). In fact, Ladue's average in five games was higher than this previous single-game record. Ladue then broke their own record the next year by scoring 830 points in a preliminary game. As of 2018, Ladue holds 9 of the top 10 highest scoring games in State history.
- As of 2018:
- Ladue holds the three highest scores in State championship games, setting the state record of 600 in 2013. Ladue also scored a semifinal record of 690 points in 2012.
- Ladue has reached the State tournament twelve times, leading all schools in number of Class 4 tournament appearances and finishing in the top three each time. Since their first appearance in 2006, Ladue had only missed the 2015 tournament. Nine consecutive appearances from 2006-2014 is a Class 4 record streak, matched by Savannah (2000-2008, sometimes in Class 4 but mostly in Class 3). Thomas Jefferson still holds the record of 10 consecutive top three finishes (1999-2008 in Class 1).
- Ladue's streak of four consecutive state championships only matches the Class 4 streak set by North Kansas City in the first four state tournaments from 1996-1999. Ladue's six consecutive appearances in the championship game from 2009-2014 is a Class 4 record, surpassing the four consecutive appearances by North Kansas City, Parkway Central, and Liberty.
- Ladue's eight championships and three second place finishes are the Class 4 records for championship game wins and appearances.
NAQT
According to NAQT's database:
- Ladue set the record for most points per tossups heard over the course of a tournament on an IS or higher difficulty set with 590.56 points per 20 tossups heard at the 2012 Villa Duchesne Invitational, breaking the previous record of 586.11 by Detroit Country Day in 2010. Ladue later broke their own record with 610.77 points per 20 tossups heard at the March 2013 NAQT Missouri Qualifier. This remained an NAQT record until Hunter scored 627.27 points per 20 tossups heard on March 18, 2017.
- Ladue set the record for most points per tossups heard in a single game on an IS or higher difficulty set with 765 points on 20 tossups heard at the March 2013 NAQT Missouri Qualifier, with a 14-5-1 stat line and 26.84 points per bonus. This was surpassed by Richard Montgomery at the December 2014 VCU Winter Tournament VII with 795 points on 20 tossups heard.
Hosting
Starting in 2011, Ladue began hosting the Ladue Invitational Spring Tournament (LIST), usually using a well-received housewritten question set but sometimes mirroring other sets. Ladue mirrored the VTACO set in 2015 and FACTS in 2018. In 2019, Ladue used the CAST set it had written in collaboration with other teams. The tournament did not occur in 2016.
Ladue has also sporadically hosted a Ladue Fall Novice Tournament, mirroring various low-difficulty housewrite sets. This tournament has occurred in 2011 (mirroring FNT), 2013 (mirroring SCOP Novice), and most recently in 2019 (mirroring RAMS).
Current Members
Seniors (2020)
Juniors (2021)
Sophomores (2022)
- Will Bender
- Theo Miller
Freshmen (2023)
- Yuvan Chali
- Max Yang
Alumni
- Raj Paul (2019)
- Moses Schindler (2019)
- Akshay Govindan (2019)
- Jack Madden (2019)
- Glen Morgenstern (2018)
- Will Gorski (2018)
- Charlie Loitman (2018)
- Philip Adams (2017)
- Jeffrey Wang (2017)
- Royce Dong (2016)
- Logan Page (2016)
- Spencer Chen (2016)
- Tom Liu (2016)
- Linhan Chen (2015)
- Brian Jiang (2015)
- Ibhan Kulkarni (2015)
- Dasha Malkova (2015)
- Michael Prablek (2015)
- Kevin Yang (2015)
- Enze Chen (2014)
- Emily Chu (2014)
- Sam Crowder (2014)
- Jialin Ding (2014)
- Mohith Nagaraj (2014)
- Stella Schindler (2014)
- Kisan Thakkar (2014)
- Ben Zhang (2014)
- Toby Zhu (2014)
- David Abraham (2013)
- Sarah Allen (2013)
- Collin Christner (2013)
- Sushant Koirala (2013)
- Sydney Petersen (2013)
- Taylor Petersen (2013)
- Max Schindler (2013)
- Mukund Subramanian (2013)
- Haohang Xu (2013)
- Zev Kane (2011)
- Ryan Liu (2011)
- Jeremy Novack (2011)
- Ravi Upadhyayula (2011)
- Aojia Zhao (2011)
- Zach Bell (2010)
- Lukas Bundonis (2010)
- Sam Lite (2010)
- Ronit Patniak (2010)
- Jason Bell (2009)
- Jack Chen (2009)
- Tim Pulisetty (2009)
- Marc Prablek (2009)
- Jason Wu (2006)
Tournament Results
2012-13 Academic Year
| Date | Tournament | Question Set | Team | Record | Rank | Stats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10/20 | Missouri Fall | NAQT IS-118 | A | 13-1 | 1/32 | [1] |
| B | 9-3 | 3/32 | [2] | |||
| C | 4-6 | 18/32 | [3] | |||
| D | 4-6 | 19/32 | [4] | |||
| E | 2-8 | 29/32 | [5] | |||
| 12/01 | Tiger Bowl V | HSAPQ-32 | A | 13-0 | 1/31 | [6] |
| B | 10-2 | 2/31 | [7] | |||
| C | 6-4 | 11/31 | [8] | |||
| D | 4-6 | 25/31 | [9] | |||
| 2/02 | Mort Walker Invitational | GSAC | A | 11-0 | 1/24 | [10] |
| B | 11-2 | 2/24 | [11] | |||
| C | 9-3 | 3/24 | [12] | |||
| D | 8-3 | 9/24 | [13] | |||
| E | 6-5 | 14/24 | [14] | |||
| 2/16 | WUHSAC XV | BHSAT | A | 11-1 | 1/28 | [15] |
| B | 5-4 | 17/28 | [16] | |||
| 3/02 | NAQT Missouri Qualifier | NAQT IS-124 | A | 13-0 | 1/30 | [17] |
| B | 10-3 | 2/30 | [18] | |||
| C | 4-6 | 16/30 | [19] | |||
| D | 2-8 | 28/30 | [20] |
External links
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