The high school’s quiz team qualified for the 13th season of High School Quiz Show, a televised trivia tournament for high schools in Massachusetts.

The team, made up of juniors Brian Gu, Neil Abraham, Ruben Noroian and Dhanu Senthilkumaran, faced off against North Quincy in the first round of the tournament, in an episode that aired on April 2.

The Hillers put up a great effort, but North Quincy maintained a lead throughout the four rounds of the match and finished with the win with a final score of 1150-1030.

“North Quincy is obviously very good,” Noroian said. “I don’t think that we should be losing our first round. I think that… our level of knowledge is better than, like, just a qualifying round team.”

One thing that was different about the competition this year was that it was held remotely, with both teams competing on Zoom while being broadcasted on the show – something that hindered the juniors, according to Noroian.

“Next year, I hope [the competition is] in person, because in person suits us so much better,” Noroian said. “In the online version they expect each person to answer [every question]…we’ve tailored our team to have certain strengths so each person can answer a certain question.”

Despite the defeat, the team has had a great time competing together since they were freshmen and are proud of what they’ve accomplished, according to Senthilkumaran.

“Our team started back in 2019 when we were all freshmen, and it was sort of like a revival since Hopkinton didn’t have a team in years,” Senthilkumaran said. “We didn’t have an official coach at first but last year Mr. Challinor offered to coach us, so he’s been our mentor ever since.”

“We just use any category of trivia questions as practice for competitions, and get other students to join in and practice with us.”