Schools

Hills East to Compete on 'The Challenge'

Half Hollow Hills students will face Eastport-South Manor in televised quiz bowl.

Half Hollow Hills High School East will go head-to-head in a battle of the minds against Eastport-South Manor Monday night on MSG Varsity's "The Challenge" quiz bowl.

The show is celebrating its 15th anniversary of showcasing the best and brightest high school students from the tri-state area. The episode will air at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 26 on MSG Varsity, Cablevision’s iO TV, Channel 14. 

Back for his third season as host of “The Challenge” is Jared Cotter, host of “MSG Varsity’s Talent Show” and a popular semi-finalist from American Idol. Cotter will serve as moderator, testing competing teams on their knowledge of history, arts and literature, current events, math, and science in front of a live studio audience.

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“Each season I am blown away by the students’ intelligence and their wide array of knowledge in so many diverse categories,” Cotter said. “I’m really excited to get the season started and to see which teams are going to bring it.”

The Half Hollow Hills East team is represented by Isaac Vingan, Aaron Schwartz (Captain), Abhinav Patil, Harshil Mattoo and Puja Bansal (Alternate). The academic advisor is Patrick Breig.

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“The Challenge” includes 192 high schools from the entire tri-state area — Long Island (with Nassau and Suffolk as two distinct regions), the Bronx, Brooklyn, Westchester/Lower Hudson Valley, New Jersey and Connecticut.  This season, Long Island will be represented by 32 high schools from Nassau County and 32 high schools from Suffolk County. A new match-up can been seen every Sunday through Friday at 6:30 pm, on MSG Varsity, Cablevision’s iO TV, Channel 14. 

Participating schools advance through a series of elimination rounds, with one school in each region being crowned regional champion and winning $2,500 for their school. The winning teams from each region go on to “The Challenge” Championship where they square off in a Tri-State Showdown. The school awarded the title of Tri-State Champion will receive $10,000 in prize money and each student participating in the final “Challenge” Championship game will receive $500.


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