Livingston Officials Honor Livingston High School's National Championship History Bowl Team

LIVINGSTON, NJ — After winning the 2024 National History Bowl competition, where the Livingston Lancers remained undefeated throughout the three-day tournament against the strongest 165 teams in the country, members of the Livingston High School (LHS) varsity History Bowl team, who also placed first in the state tournament, recently received proclamations from the Livingston Township Council in recognition of these accomplishments.

LHS History Bowl team advisor Brynn Smith and members of the junior varsity (JV) team, who placed third overall in the state and 16 ^th nationally, were also honored with township proclamations.

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LHS junior Robert Wang, who individually earned first place in the National History Bee competition and second place in the National Geography Bee, addressed the township council on behalf of the team. Wang has been instrumental in the growth of the LHS History Bowl team over the last three years since entering the competition individually as a freshman and was optimistic about his senior season as he shared the following story about his journey.

“I don't remember what the winning question was this year, but I do remember both winning questions from two years ago—my first History Bowl tournament and the first History Bee tournament from when I was a freshman and a soloist not knowing what the hell I was doing,” said Wang. “After I came back home with trophies in hand and COVID-19, I had two thoughts going through my head. The first was, ‘That was sick. I want to do this again next year. The second one was, ‘Man, I wish I had someone to share this with.’

“The year after, I arm-twisted my buddy Akshaya into this. We went back to Arlington for nationals and ran it back, and again I wished I had more people to share this with...Learning history is so much fun, and competing in the game is even more fun. You get to meet so many new people who have become my lifelong friends to this day, you get to learn so much stuff about the world, about history, about random events and stories you never would have learned in school or in your everyday life, and I really just wished I had more people to share it with.

“So over the years, I arm-twisted and threatened and extorted even more of my friends into playing this amazing game that I call home, and because of that, you see the people here today. You see people who have shown more dedication to this game than I ever could and who have put more work and more love into this game than I could ever dream.

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“When we came out of History Bowl Nationals this year with a national trophy again, [the] first thought going through my head this time was that I'm grateful to have the people behind me to share this gift with, and I really wish I could give more people this gift, which I will do next year. The second thought was, ‘This was sick, let’s do this again next year.’”

The National History Bowl is a quiz competition testing knowledge of the history of all eras and all parts of the world, according to its website. Founded in 2010, the National History Bowl consists of a network of regional tournaments held annually both in-person and online from late October through early April. Qualified teams then compete in the annual national championships in Arlington, Va.

The competition is presented in a buzzer-based style except for second-quarter bonus questions and third-quarter 60 second rounds. At the national competition, there is no limit on team size, but only four students can play at one time.

Livingston Mayor Al Anthony and his fellow council members expressed immense pride in the accomplishments of the LHS History Bowl team as they handed proclamations to Wang and his fellow team members.

Along with Wang, this year’s varsity team also included Akshaya Shanker, Aanya Rathi, Joshua Metters and Ben Silversten.

The JV team included Arav Kaushik, Parik Eda, Ethan Liu, Jack Liu and Aviral Bhardwaj. Overall, the JV team made it to the first round of the national playoffs and landed in 16th place after many impressive wins. Individually, sophomore Ethan Liu was named a semifinalist in the National Geography Bee.

"LHS should be proud of how our students performed in such a challenging, high stakes competition,” Smith said after the national tournament. “I could not have organized this trip without the help of Guy Rabner, who volunteered to chaperon the trip with me, nurse Katie Baach, and the assistance of my supervisor Charlie Raphael.”

To learn more about the National History Bowl competition format, CLICK HERE .

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