Palo Alto High School Wins Second Consecutive Championship

This annual event continues to grow

Team Event

On the morning of April 23, 2017, 40 high school bridge players, ranging in age from 14 to 18, congregated at the Bayshore Bridge Center in Burlingame to contest the third annual Bay Area High School Bridge Championship. Ten teams competed in the Team Championship this year (up from six teams last year). Three schools participated for the first time: Los Gatos High School, Mills High School (Milbrae), and San Mateo High School. Three schools—Mills, Kehillah, and Palo Alto—fielded two teams each.

At the end of the morning round robin team competition, the Paly Juniors, from Palo Alto High School, had scored 98 imps in 18 boards. Second place Gunn High School in Palo Alto had scored 71. Two teams from Palo Alto thus faced off in the final for the second year in a row. The team from Monta Vista High in Cupertino (Sarah Cai, Sophie Lian, Ben Smentek, and Ricky Schober) finished in third place. Fourth place was earned by the Slammers from Mills High School (Vincent Yang, Sierra Liu, Sarah Ku, and Kevin Xu), who were competing in the team event for the first time.

After a break to eat lunch and socialize with other high school players, the two finalist teams sat down to play a 24 board match to determine the winner. The Paly Juniors pulled out to a 24 imp lead in the first half. Although the Gunn team continued to fight hard in the second half, Paly increased its lead by a few more imps. The final margin was 68-41. The Paly team consisted of Olivia d’Arezzo, Cornelius Duffie, Stella Wan, and Sarah Youngquist. Only Stella was a new addition to the team for 2017. The other three were all part of last year’s winning team. The members of the Gunn team were Kevin Huang, Lucas Huang, Jonny Shi, and Matthew Shi.

The winners received a large trophy for their school, individual replicas for each player, and gift cards worth $200 each. The runners-up also received individual trophies and gift cards, and both the third and fourth place finishers received gift cards.

Pair Event

While the two Palo Alto teams contested the team final, nine tables (36 high school students) played in the Pairs Championship. The pair event was open to contestants in the morning team game who did not qualify for the final, as well as to new entrants.

The Pairs Championship was won by Natalie Huang and Nathan Huang, of Los Altos High School. The pair in second place, David Zheng and Michael Zheng, represented Lynbrook High School in San Jose. In third, only one matchpoint behind, were Vincent Yang and Sarah Ku of Mills High School. Sophie Lian and Sarah Cai from Monta Vista High School finished fourth. The top four pairs received individual trophies and gift cards.

 

Michelle Rodriguez and Adam Thomas of San Mateo High School won the award for the top newcomers. Due to a scoring error, the gift card was given to Jacob Schireson and Jake Warsaw of Kehillah. Even though the error was in their favor, Jacob and Jake reported it to the tournament director and returned the gift cards they received. They may have lost the top newcomers award, but their good sportsmanship certainly deserves the applause they received at the event.

Warmup Pairs

While the teams contested the round robin in the morning, twelve students (ten high school students and two middle schoolers who volunteered to avoid a half table) played in a Warmup Pair game, an event held for the first time this year. The winners were David Zheng and Michael Zheng, who were only a few matchpoints ahead of Natalie Huang and Nathan Huang. The same two pairs finished first and second in the Pairs Championship, but they reversed their ranking.

Acknowledgements

The High School Championship was jointly sponsored by SiVY and Peninsula Youth Bridge. Special appreciation is due to volunteer tournament director Will Watson, as well as to Patti Frederick, who allowed us to use the space at the Bayshore Bridge Center rent-free. As always, thanks are also due to the many volunteers who make all of SiVY events possible.