Members and Alumni
Members
Alumni
If you're a former member of the Maryland Academic Quiz Team, and would like to be featured on this page or would like to correct any errors or add information, please contact SteveJon.
Josh Allen
jtallen@wam.umd.edu
A highly talented player who knows a little of everything, Josh has
proven to be a vital factor in MAQT Public Relations (something desperately needed by a team that has graduated
Vishnu and Matt). A highlight of his career was playing alone as Maryland C at ACF 1998 Nationals for several games.
The inheritor of Maryland's hardcore mocking and busting tradition, Josh has made it into an art, leading him to
be accused of having no human decency remaining.
Frank Amtmann
famtmann@hotmail.com
Frank is currently a Graduate Student at the Maxwell School
of Syracuse University getting his Master's in Public Administration.
Matt Baker
baker@math.berkeley.edu
Now a grad student at Berkeley, Baker was Swisdak's right-hand man and was the team's president. An excellent
player in the humanities, Baker has a hard-working approach to the game that he shared with younger Maryland
players. Don't let the entry on Bakerism in the lexicon fool you; Baker was
(and still is) a great ACF player.
Josh Bates
Josh was one of our star freshman in 1997-98, having come from Florida without playing quiz bowl in high school.
Unfortunately, QB evidently didn't match up with his academics well, and his poor grades forced him off the team
(or so we presume). He can still be seen around campus.
Michael Bentley
mike000@umd.edu
Mike, worried that med schools would judge him by his shocking and revealing bio on this page,
recently removed his bio in favor of the one that you are reading now.
Zeke Berdichevsky
ebes@wam.umd.edu
Zeke was the team's best basketball player, and could often be seen at the Terrapin Taco House on Route 1. He
aspires to David Hamilton's title boy crown -- though, unlike Dave, he actually has knowledge of the contents of
works too. Zeke is distinguished by is use of the word "dude," as in, "Dude! The Kalevala is
hardcore!" Zeke has improved greatly recently, and is a valuable addition to any team that he's on. Right
now that team is Michigan, where he is a graduate student and Michigan's key to beating Chicago.
Mark Binfield
binfield@wam.umd.edu
Mark graduated in 2004 with degrees in physics, math and econ, and impressed upon the younger MAQT members the
importance of Herman's Hermits. He may not really be Henry VIII, but don't tell him that.
Alec Bradley
loki1225@GMAIL.COM
Often luring opponents into a false
sense of security by his claims of being a slacker, Alec is MAQT's ace in the hole. Never
without his trusty prison shank, he is not allowed back in Mexico for that incident where he
killed 17 Mexicans and a midget at a circus.
Annie "Artemis" Bush
The Queen of the Wilde Maus, and a good table tennis player to boot, she amazed all of us by telling us that her
parents are building a geodesic dome! Annie showed up at this year's Terrapin, and graduated in the spring.
Michelle Cantave
shellyac@wam.umd.edu
New! -- Michelle has been crowned Porn Queen of QB, for her stellar performance on the Porn Packet at TRASHionals.
Sometime resident of the Cayman Islands, and official hostess of the MAQT, Michelle is known for her satirical
cake-baking skills. Although she has graduated with a degree in psychology, no one is quite sure what her plans
are. One suspects that Michelle is really in this club to derive amusement from seeing 20-year-old guys acting
like 12-year-olds.
Michael Chau
mchau@wam.umd.edu
Mike is a survivor of Wheaton High School in Montgomery County. Mike has consistently put in a good performance
at past tournaments, and has recently demonstrated his basketball skills at summer practices.
Chris Chrzanowski
cchrz@wam.umd.edu
Dubbed "Delaware Boy" by David Hamilton when displaying extensive knowledge about the UD campus, Dave
only found out later Chris had cheated by living in the fine (only in his opinion) state for almost ten years.
Chris' other favorite subjects include the Simpsons, airport codes and minor league baseball geography. President
for the 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 school years, Chris will be working for some aerospace company.
Brittany Clark
bclark3@umd.edu
Known as Dark Phoenix to members of MAQT and the Terrapin Gaming Club
while she was still at UMD, Brittany has whole-heartedly
accepted her position as VP, whose newfound duties include keeping notes for the Prez, sending out reminder
emails and generally keeping it together when other officers lose it. Following her stint at Whitman, when asked
about her old team's prospects, she is quick to point out "It got better after I left."
Matt Colvin
mac47@cornell.edu
The quondam Scourge of a.c.c-b, Matt did more to promote Maryland's bad-boy image through his infamous Chicago
"pajama" post than all past-and-present MAQT'ers combined. His negging abilities are admired circuit-wide,
as countless total points have been destroyed through Colvination. He introduced the MAQT to
euchre and once remarked that he had one Bach CD for every week of the year,
not even counting the Best of Boccherini set. Matt is attending graduate school at Cornell, and has recently
made his triumphal return to both the circuit, and, unfortunately for many, the mailing list.
Jessie Connolly
gs1716@yahoo.com
Jessie C, an enthusiastic alumnus of the Paint Branch team, was actually involved with something else on campus
(something new for the team!): she was a member of the Maryland Silks and Marching Band, performing at football
games, and was on the Pep Band, performing at basketball games. She could regularly be found in the Yahoo QB
chatroom, undermining the years of spite and hostility put up by the MAQT towards other school. She has moved
onto grad school at the University of South Carolina.
Ali Daniels
danielsa@umd.edu
While her first year with MAQT was most remarkable for her outside commitments, Ali has stuck with it
and following a succssful coup-d'etat to become the club's Secretary, she was similary ousted as the result
of a clandestine meeting of high-ranking quizbowl officials. She claims that this year her priorities are
in order, and it looks like we'll be seeing a lot more of her.
Jason Dettelbach
jdettel@hotmail.com
Master Macdaddy of all questions about wrestling and Baywatch, Jason
is the inseparable tormentor of Khon, uttering such lines as, "They're not
going to stop [wrestling] just 'cuz somebody dies, Khon." He plays a
fierce euchre game, and talks a lot of
trash. Having graduated with a business, and, somehow, a math degree, he is
currently looking for a job.
Adam Fine
Geertgen22@aol.com
Adam departed MAQT after the 2003-04 season for the real world and life as an accountant. He was Maryland's most
notorious (and dedicated) statkeeper, though he still loathes navigating the Duke campus. Adam can still be found
running the annual Yahoo quizbowl fantasy sports leagues, spending many nights watching episodes of The OC,
and reliving old Penn Bowl experiences.
Arthur Fleming
ajflemi@yahoo.com
President for the '97 season, Arthur just showed up at practice
freshman year, never having played quiz bowl before, and was captain of
the A team by his junior year. He has complete knowledge of James Bond and
Star Trek, and frequently drove on long trips, including the 1995 UNC
tournament, where he was rear-ended by Matt. Don't ask him about Dr.
Wolfe's Yevshenko tossup in the
faculty-student challenge. Also, don't ask him about the Baltimore
Orioles.
Roman Garnett
romanempire@gmail.com
Roman's short stint at Maryland left a mark on the,
introducing club members to Wolphin and "The Delicious." He is a grad student at Oxford, and looking
to work at MI6 after his time at the CIA.
Dan Goff
dgoff@asaltypieceofdan.net
Dan led the Social Studies and All-Around teams at Shawsville (VA)
Middle & High School from 1993-1999, capturing the MACC Social Studies
title in 1999, and posting a 3rd place performance on the now-defunct Klassroom Kwiz television show in 1998. Following
a two year stint with MAQT, Dan heard the call of the wild and returned to Virginia and the working world.
He can still be found behind the scenes, guiding the current batch of younglings not unlike Zordon.
David Goodman
dlgood@umich.edu
Goodman is indeed the uncontested Official
Biscuit of Academic Competition; just ask Chadwick. The team's history maestro, Dave
introduced Prince Rupert of the Rhine (NOT Dudley Do-Right) to
the quizbowl canon, in addition to constantly informing us of his hypothetical
"Veg-O-Matic" tossup. Lament: "Uggh. That's so wrong!"
Dave wears gold chains and a baseball cap, which he rotates on his head when
the going gets tough. Not often seen during his last semester, he is now
heading to Michigan for graduate work, where he presumably attend whichever tournaments
are within walking distance.
Alex Goranin
ajgoranin@yahoo.com
While his stint on the Maryland Academic Quiz Team may not have been remarkable for its
length (1993-95), Alex participated in many-an historic moment. At the 1995 GW Invitational, he beat Rob Hershey in "Jenga" for
control of the next question in the final's second round. Alex was also on the fabled C team with Ramesh at Pennbowl '95, where he
incorrectly, albeit humorously, answered "Blossom" on a toss-up about "Beavis and Butthead." Alex currently writes legal briefs in
Philadelphia, all the while staring at the fluffy white clouds through his office window.
Daniel Greenstein
dgreens@gmail.com
Daniel has taken the proverbial money and run, graduating with an econ degree and now trying to find gainful
employment in the real world. His farewell season included a 4th at the 2004 NAQT ICT, and a tag-team win with
Adam at Rochester's Frederick Douglass Invitational. His legacy, however, does include the appointment of the
first ever Director of Spite. In the meantime, Daniel has replaced Dan Goff as "the other Dan" and can
be found debating RPGs on the Weinerboard.
Noah Grosfeld-Katz
gehrig21@yahoo.com
An aspiring politico, Noah has amazing connections with attractive females, and stunned the team with
his Hillary Duff buzz at the 2003 TIT. He is currently continuing his quest for the Presidency of the
United States.
Rajarshi (RG) Gupta
RG joined the team after discovering our web page. Although he only
played for the MAQT for two years, he showed marked improvement, although
sometimes he had some very inexplicable buzzes. RG is at Berkeley
pursuing a graduate degree.
David Hamilton
dhamiltn@wam.umd.edu
Known as Title Boy and formerly the author of this web page, Dave was also president of the team for the 97-98
season and editor of the 1997 and 1998 Terrapin Invitational Tournaments. When asked what
motivates him to study for ACF, Dave replied, "Spite." An example:
after Matt answered a tossup on Roman history at ACF Nationals, Dave wrote down in his notebook, "Tacitus --
learn early clues, bust Colvin." Always up for a game of Balderdash,
Dave is also a compulsive collector of useless crap and disturbed fan of Daria.
Shaun Hayeslip
hayeslip@wam.umd.edu
After returning to the States as MAQT's president from 1999-2000 and leading the team for two years, Shaun headed
off to graduate school at Harvard in fall 2001.
Rob Hershey
rhershey@erols.com
Rob is now in the real world, and shares an apartment with Willie close to campus.
A very widely-travelled man, he is notorious for
failing to answer questions on places he has visited (such an action being a
Hersheyism. Rob was
on a number of tournament-winning teams, the most recent being the 1996
tournament-winning B team at GW, and has amazingly attended the Princeton
tournament eight years in a row.
Aaron Hoskins
ahoskins@wam.umd.edu
Aaron is a graduate of Washington High School in Fremont, California. Over the summer, he learned that his voice
is "soothing" when he is being condescending (a fact he hopes to take advantage of this year.) In the
past, he has been accused of being obsessed with score keeping at BAAC (he denies this accusation). Secretary
in 2001-2002 and 2002-2003, Aaron is now working toward a masters at Maryland, so you may see him moderate at
high school tournaments.
Bryan Hoskins
bhoskins@wam.umd.edu
Bryan, who not surprisingly is Aaron's twin brother, is also working toward a masters at Maryland, in fire
protection engineering. He was Treasurer in 2001-2002 and Vice President in 2002-2003.
Brad Houston
bhouston@umd.edu
After building the quizbowl program from the ground up at his undergrad institution, Brad had looked forward to avoiding work of any sort in Graduate quizbowl life. Sadly, his control-freak nature has gotten the best of him, which is why he is still TDing and editing team packets on a semi-regular basis (and is thus a broken, broken man). He pretends to know history and music, and is the team's resident CheeseEating Surrender Monkey (despite not actually being French, though he does correct everybody's pronunciation anyway. What a salaud.
Andy Hu
anth757@excite.com
Andy, our Vice President for 2000-01, scared many of the freshmen (but not Dan G) with his rancorous comments and
gestures. He also wishes quiz bowl were more obnoxious. Despite not wanting to emulate dinosaurs like John Nam,
he took a criminology class and returned in the spring of 2003 to play in a few tournaments.
Vishnu Jejjala
vishnu@alecto.physics.uiuc.edu
Now a grad student at Illinois, the 96 ACF Nationals fourth-place team. Vishnu
was team president for the 95-96 season. He played on the 6th place team in
the 95 ACF NCT, and on the 4th place Maryland B team in the 94 NCT. He is
notable for being the original "rabid ACFer", engaging in flame wars with Pat
Matthews from the very inception of alt.college.college-bowl.
He is also famous for being a Spinozistic naturalist, making long .plan files, purchasing
obscenely priced opera CDs (part of being a cultural elitist), and gambling
compulsively (especially with John Nam). Most amusing/embarrassing anecdote:
While the team was hanging around the parking lot of a hotel in Atlanta in
1995, a gust of wind came up and caught Vishnu's glasses like a pair of sails,
blowing them across a 6-lane highway and into a gutter. Vishnu's words on the
moment: "Boy, that really sucks."
Guy Jordan
shabistari@aol.com
Following a career at George Washington University, Guy resurfaced
at the University of Maryland as an Art History graduate student. After spending several months shaking off the
rust, he helped the A team to a 4th place finish at ICT. Guy is spending time working on his doctoral thesis and
roaming the halls of the National Gallery.
Ramesh Kannappan
ramesh@nova.umd.edu
Almost certainly Maryland's all-time greatest player, Ramesh was one of the
founders of ACF, and has given self-sacrificingly of his time for many
years now. At Penn Bowl in 1995, Ramesh captained the Maryland C team on a
Cinderella run that led all the way to the finals, with wins over BYU and
Harvard before being stopped by Chicago.
Ram "Shorty" Kannappan
ramk@mail.utexas.edu
Ramesh's younger brother. A junior in high school now, Shorty played on
Maryland C with Arthur Fleming and Matt Colvin during the 1993-4 season.
Along with Misha Bernard, they formed a team called Noodle Noggin that
consisted of Misha, two freshmen, and an 8th grader. When they were about
to play CBI-and-ACF champion Chicago A, John Nam and Marc Swisdak opted not
to watch the match, saying that they "didn't want to see the slaughter".
But Noodle Noggin won, partly thanks to Shorty's tossup on Batman and a lot
of -5s by Chicago. Ram is now a freshman at Ut Austin.
Willie Keller
biscuit@wam.umd.edu
Graduating from the University of Wisconsin in 1995, Willie's email
address makes it obvious that his assimilation into the MAQT is almost
complete. A Packers fan, he lived in a church for two and a half years,
and was a reactor operator at the UW research reactor for three years,
which is definitely one of the oddest sets of home and employment in the
quizbowl community. Willie added much-needed physics/chem/current events
knowledge to the A team, but unfortunately (for us anyway), returned to the real world after the 1998-99 season.
Ken Lasala
Back in the Maryland area after attending grad school in Chicago, Ken was the history
maven on the Starsinic-led Maryland team of 1994-5. Unstoppable on Civil War
questions, he was vice-president of the team and worked as an aide for a
Republican U.S. Senator. He is also famous for driving a tiny Dodge Omni
with the turning circle of a Mack Truck.
Khon Lien
mdterp724@aol.com
Khon is famous for his mysterious utterances, and
for running his Khon Hoc tournaments. He often drove large amounts of people to
tournaments in his van, and was treasurer for the 1996-7 season. Currently residing in Perry Hall,
Khon has made it into Dental School (University of Maryland at Baltimore) and is hard at work.
Sherman Lo
daedalus@leland.stanford.edu
Now a grad student at Stanford, Sherman came from the same high school that
produced history maven Ken LaSala, so it's not surprising that both of them
are U.S. History maestros. Sherman played on the 1993 ACF runner-up team,
and captained the Stanford A team which won the 1997 ACF West Coast
Regionals.
Jonathan Magin
jsmagin@yahoo.com
A bibliophile to the extreme, Jonathan is, quite possibly, the closest thing MAQT has to an expert on anything academic in nature.
His instistance on attending and performances at difficult tournaments are proof positive that he is a true quizbowler.
Charles Meigs
???
Kara Mohler
kmm@wam.umd.edu
An on-and-off member of the Academic Quiz Team, Kara is now a teacher of History at her high school alma
mater, James Hubert Blake High School.
Jesse Molesworth
jmmoles@leland.stanford.edu
A member of the B team that took 4th in 1994, and of the A teams that
placed 6th and 3rd in 95 and 97, Jesse spent the 1995-6 season in England. Jesse was a physics
major before reducing to English, a fact he notes with glee upon getting
science tossups. He is currently pursuing a PhD in English from Stanford, and
was on the team which won the '98 NAQT Nationals.
Christine Moritz
Christine, a former star of Emory's team, played with us for a
semester, until her graduate work in English here finally caught up with her.
Curran Muhlberger
cdmuhlb@UMD.EDU
Known for actually being able to answer stuff about his majors, Curran was a welcome addition
to the Maryland Academic Quiz Team, despite his friendly nature and avoidance of trash.
John Nam
geezer@wam.umd.edu
One of the three founders of ACF (along with Carol Guthrie and Ramesh), John was playing quiz bowl for Maryland
when this year's freshmen were still crawling. He has some unfortunate habits, among them a gambling problem and an unequalled propensity for trash talk. In fact,
John boasts that it was his trash talk that led Ramesh to study and become good. Sometimes this trash talk is crude, as in this example from a
euchre game at Michelle's place: "You suck a lot, Colvin. I'm going to make you my woman."
Sometimes it is foolhardy, as in this example from halftime when John was up 15 points against an unnamed team at Maryland
Masters: "Ha! See? We're going to treat you like the bitch-dogs that you are!" The other team
proceeded to answer 9 of the last 10 tossups.
Eric Newman
enewman2@mail.umd.edu
A recipient of the Goldwater Scholarship, Eric is an expert when it comes to the more difficult quizbowl questions. While his TRASH skills were not up to par with the rest of the team, he promises to write less questions about Lifehouse and Michelle Branch. Eric is currently attending medical school.
Jeff Newman
jnewman@astro.berkeley.edu
Now a grad student at Berkeley along with Matt Baker, Jeff blew Matt Colvin
away with his fluid translations in Latin class. Since Jeff's parents live
in North Carolina, we were able to stay at their house on a few trips to
Wesselmania. Jeff has a knowledge of esoterica and current events that
made him an excellent complement to Matt Baker and Marc Swisdak.
Josyula "JR" Rao
jrrao@glue.umd.edu
JR received his undergrad degree in Marine Engineering in India, where he
avidly played a game similar to quiz bowl. He has a good base of science knowledge,
but is still having a few problems with the play of the game. He is now pursuing a
degree is Mechanical Engineering, but we haven't heard from him in about two years.
Casey Retterer
casey_retterer@hcpss.org
After successfully running the club for a few years,
Casey has since graduated and currently teaches science at Oakland Mills High School, where he coaches the
It's Academic team. He can still be seen staffing tournaments and occasionally showing up to play at the few for
which he's eligible (though odds are he'll have to leave early to do other nerdy things with his wife, Jen).
Bill Schmeh
wschmeh@wam.umd.edu
We thought Bill was going to be a key to our future when he nailed several history
toss-ups off Goodman at his first practice. A connoisseur of country music and Jeff
Foxworthy, he's as reckless on the road -- getting a speeding ticket in West Virginia
for doing 95 in a 55 MPH zone -- as he is with the buzzer. Unfortunately, Bill has
followed his protege Dave too closely, and has not been seen at a practice since 1997. He is presumably in his
room playing Freecell.
Julie Singer
jes26@duke.edu
F*ck statistics, Julue was crowned "#1 woman of quiz bowl" by the Wangster. After coming to her
senses and abandoning MAQT during your senior year, she went on to pursue a Ph.D at Duke University (Go Terps!).
She is currently in Paris, doing as little work on the dissertation as possible and pining after David Scott
Hamilton. Favorite Khon quote: "That doesn't have a hole in it!"
Maureen "Moe" Smith
freckles@wam.umd.edu
*NOT* Annie Bush, this free-spirited pyrhottist most recently ran and edited the 2001 TIT to rave reviews.
As vice-president, she hoped to whip the younger members of the team into killing machines by introducing her
"dual-Benet's" study meathod. She could usually be seen posing languidly trying to look
unapproachable outside the Student Union. After graduation in 2002, Maureen spent some time out west and has
since plunged head-first into the real world. She keeps herself busy with her hubby, her home, and her baby,
to whom she reads aloud nightly from Benet's.
Tricia Southard
Li Sparks
Though she never played, Li was the heart and soul of the Maryland team
during the days of John Nam and Ramesh. Tirelessly organizing, dealing
with the stingy SGA, and reading in practice, she was a life-saver to the
always-disorganized MAQT. Recently, she came to the defense of the team
when the name of our college tournament was criticized.
Michael Starsinic
mds1@dc.infi.net
Mike captained the team for the 1994-5 season. As President of the club, he ran a well-oiled machine,
sending out practice messages, coordinating driving for tournaments and running the high school tournaments as
well as they have ever been run. Famous for torturing his car passengers with Debbie Gibson music and for his
encyclopedic knowledge of 80s tunes, Mike was second in scoring on the team only to Ramesh. He played on the
1994 ACF Nationals runner-up team. After two years as co-founder and imperator of the Ohio State team while in
grad school, Mike returned to the A team for the 1998-99 season, returned to real life, but then resurfaced in
the spring of 2002 to take some statistics courses and lead the A team to top half of field finishes at the 2002
NAQT ICT and 2002 and 2003 ACF Nationals, and third place at the 2003 NAQT ICT.
Gaius Stern
gaius@server.berkeley.edu
Gaius played on the Maryland teams of old with Ramesh and John Nam. As you
may have deduced from his Latinate first name, he was the Classics maestro
on that team. He is now a grad student at Berkeley, where in addition to
playing on the Berkeley ACF team, he and Matt Baker are the Consuls of the
Berkeley club. Gaius also puts out the West Coast ACF Newsletter, and
has been TD of the last 3 ACF West Coast Regionals.
Marc Swisdak
swisdak@ucsub.colorado.edu
Now an instructor of some sort at Maryland after grad studies in Colorado, "Swiz"
captained the team for much of his
time as an undergraduate at Maryland. In high school, his Roosevelt team
met John Sheahan's St. Anselm's team on the It's Academic
show, and Roosevelt prevailed by a slim margin. Swisdak's Maryland teams
finished second to Chicago at ACF Nationals both years it was held at
College Park (93 and 94). When asked by Matt Colvin why he bothered to
memorize phone number area codes for major U.S. cities, Swiz replied,
"Because it comes up." He is the author of the
ACF Question-Writing Guide.
He was also part of Crocodile Cal's
Outback Buzzer Shack, composed of him, Dave Goodman, Dave Hamilton, and Jesse Molesworth,
which won PE IV.
Dave Vacca
vacca@intr.net
Dave Vacca was probably the only member of the MAQT who could answer a tossup with "Stainless
Steel Rat," and still have his fellow teammates be 100% sure that he was correct. Along
with his trademark odd Vacca knowledge, he was responsible for introducing the team
to the the card game Lunch Money. Currently residing in DC, Dave still helps moderate
when he can and is an editor for TRASH.
Sandeep Vaheesan
sandeep.vaheesan@gmail.com
A member of the initially promising class of 2005 (Mahmood, Sally and Tyrone being the others), Sandeep was
the only one who remained with MAQT for four years. With considerable help from Dan Goff and Casey, he was a moderately effective team president during the
2004-05 academic year. He's currently living in the DC area and toiling away for the man. Months in the real world haven't yet extinguished his hopes
of making something of himself. He can be seen regularly moderating at house tournaments.
David Vatz
dvatz@umd.edu
David is a graduate from Dulaney High School. He is a sports guy who has a sports radio show with Will Bruner
on WMUC, but doesn't know anything else. Don't ever mention Jeffery Maier in his presence.
He also insists that "Go Ravens" appear in this bio.
Alvin Wong
akarwong@hotmail.com
Having graduated in May 2001, Alvin has now entered the real world even as he ponders a possible return to
graduate school.