April and May Accolades

We are sharing Student Accolades from:

Quizbowl >> 

Track and Field >>

Augur Bit >>   

Quizbowl 

Congrats to our Open Small-School National Champions!

In late April, Alec Donath ’26, Henry Fragale ’26, Ben Hellman ’25, Haughton Neppl ’27, Ridgely Neppl ’28, Lomahn Sun ’26, Nick von Hindenburg, ’26,  and Kai von Hindenburg ’28 participated in the International Academic Competitions (IAC) High School Nationals in Arlington, VA, an event with more than 1,000 student participants from across the country.

In the only team-based event of the tournament, GDS's National History Bowl team, which includes Ben, Alec, Lomahn, Henry, Haughton, and Ridgely, placed highest in the Small-School division, earning the title Open Small-School National Champions! GDS's team also placed 5th overall in the (all schools) Varsity Division.  

Our students also participated in individual events and took national exams. Most notably, Haughton qualified for finals in the Academic, U.S. History, and World History Bees, and progressed to semi-finals in the Political Science, Geography, and Science Bees.

Please join us in congratulating all eight GDS students for their hard work and successes in these events!

Memorial Day weekend National Quizbowl Tournaments

High School NAQT Nationals

GDS’s High School team (Alec Donath ’26, Henry Fragale ’27, Ben Hellman ’25, Haughton Neppl ’28, and Lomahn Sun ’26) competed in the High School National Championship Tournament in Atlanta where they emerged as one of the top teams in the country. More than 300 teams that had finished in the top 15% throughout the year qualified for this event. GDS finished in a tie for 8th place. A special congratulations to Ben Hellman, who was awarded an All-Star medal for finishing 16th out of 1,678 students!
 

Elementary & Middle School IAC Nationals

GDS quizbowlers in 8th grade and under (Eli Fastow ’33, Hugo Gonen ’32, Oskar Gonzalez-Liu ’32, Jackson Lopez ’32, and Caleb Simon-Ratner ’31) joined some 2,000 students from around the country at the IAC EMS Nationals in Orlando. To attend Nationals, students first had to take an exam to qualify for Regionals and then finish in the top 50% at the Regional tournament.  

Of note, in the 6th grade division, Caleb qualified for quarterfinals in the Science Bee and then finished in an impressive 31st place.  

In 5th grade, Hugo qualified for quarterfinals in both the Science and World History Bees, and placed 14th overall in the U.S. History Bee. 
Caleb, Hugo, Jackson, and Oskar also competed together in the Intermediate Division (5th & 6th grades) Academic Bowl and advanced to the playoffs.

Please congratulate all of the GDS quizbowl students on a stellar performance in Nationals!  

— Reported by GDS Substitute Teacher and Elementary & Middle School Quizbowl Coach, Randy Sargent Neppl

Track and Field

Congratulations to the GDS women's track team who placed second in the ISL B Championships and fifth in the ISL A Championships in mid/late May. GDS was one of 15 schools in this competition, which included the top sprinting team in the nation! Congratulations also to our men's team, who won the MAC B Championships and finished 2nd in the MAC A Championships.

Over Memorial Day weekend, GDS wrapped up its championship season with a strong showing at the DC State Athletics Championships. All high schools located in Washington, DC are invited to participate and the competition is fierce. Our men finished 9th and our women were 7th out of some 35 competing public, private, and charter schools. 

The top eight scoring individual GDS student performances included Shira Wenthe ’27, who after setting three school records this spring, came in 2nd in the 3200 meter race (10:39) and Alexandra Solomon ’26 (46.78) who came in 4th in the 300 meter hurdles and 5th (16.58) in the 100 meter hurdles. Naomi Borek ’25 (17.00) took 6th in the 100 meter hurdles. Seva Rustgi ’25 (4'10") took 7th in the high jump, and Andrew Bennett ’26 took 5th in the 1600 (4:25), Andrew Leopold ’26 (42.03) 7th in the 300 meter hurdles, and Noah Martz ’25 (122'6") 7th in the discus.

All but one of the GDS relay teams crossed the finish line among the top eight schools, with our women's 4x800 team claiming third in the city!

DCSAA results are here.

ISL and MAC "A Championships" results are here. Filter to just see the results of our leagues (MAC for men and ISL for women).

ISL and MAC "B Championships" results are here. Filter to just see the results of our leagues (MAC for men and ISL for women).

 — Reported by GDS High School History Teacher and Athletics Coach, Anthony Belber

Augur Bit    

Congratulations to GDS’s Augur Bit staff for several placements in this year’s National Private School Journalism Association contest!

The Bit’s editor-in-chief Sam Gross ’27 and managing editors Teresa Dean ’26, and Molly Kurtzer-Ellenbogen ’26 won first place in the editorial leadership contest, while Jonah Levy ’27, took first place in the PSJA's sports writer of the year contest. Sam Gross ’27, Gilly Lyons ’27, Rachel Hellman ’28, Alexandra Ezrow ’28, and Arielle Stopak ’27 won second place in the continuous team coverage contest for their collective work covering GDS’s phone ban.