Who is …Gus Woythaler ’16?

If you follow the popular game show, you’ll know that senior Gus Woythaler just swept the first round of the Jeopardy! College Championship tonight.

Woythaler isn’t the first Stanford student to be successful in the college version of the quiz show. Vinita Kailasanath ‘04 M.S. ‘04 J.D. ‘10 was the first Stanford undergraduate in recent memory to win, back in 2001,  and more recently Nico Martinez ‘07 J.D. ‘13 won in fall 2005.

Stanford is the only school to have more than one winner in the Jeopardy! College Championship in recent memory.

Woythaler will now compete in the second round of the tournament, which will be screened this coming Monday at 7 p.m. on ABC.

“Winning my first round was an unbelievable feeling,” he said of tonight’s contest.

This was his first experience with competitive quizzes — unlike many other successful Jeopardy! players, Woythaler did not do Quiz Bowl or similar competitions before or at Stanford.

While we will have to wait until Monday’s screening to see how Woythaler fares in the second round, there certainly is a silver lining.

“Also at this point I’m guaranteed at least $10,000,” he joked.

Whether or not he will walk home with the final prize, though, we’ll have to wait and see.

This article will be updated.

 

Contact Nitish Kulkarni at nitishk2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.