Sinecio Morales
Sinecio Morales (born 2004) is a student at Johns Hopkins University. He is a prolific Quiz bowl player who won the 2023 IHSA Scholastic Bowl State Championship with Rockford Auburn High School as team captain. In addition to his success at the IHSA championship, Morales led Rockford Auburn to a championship-bracket finish as the team's highest scorer as well as the fourth highest scorer overall. Morales has also written and published a science fiction novel for National Novel Writing Month named Gravity's Edge.
Life at Johns Hopkins University
At Johns Hopkins University, a top 30 Quiz bowl team in North America, Morales currently serving as the president of the JHU Quiz Bowl Club. Additionally, Morales has won numerous awards, including Top Undergraduate Player at the 2025 NAQT Intercollegiate Championship (ICT), All-Star (2nd place) at the 2024 NAQT ICT, and 2nd place individual scorer at the IQBT Undergraduate Championship. Morales is also an ACTIVE writer for both Quiz bowl, working as a question writer for NAQT, as well as other organizations such as the The Johns Hopkins News-Letter.
Morales is heavily involved in other programs at Johns Hopkins University, serving as a Learning Den Tutor as well as an undergraduate researcher in biomedical research at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In addition to his scientific work, Morales also has interests in art history and conservation, as he works as a Visual Resources Collection Assistant at Johns Hopkins as well as a curatorial fellow at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.
Morales appeared on Jeopardy! Show #9525 on March 20, 2026. His other two competitors were Jamie Ding, the 5-day champion going into the episode; and David Ley, an immersive theatre director from Ithaca, New York. Morales struggled in the first Jeopardy! round, scoring -$200 at the end of the round, with his score going as low as -$1,000 on the ninth clue. However, Morales mounted a large comeback in the Double Jeopardy! round, rallying to a score of $10,200 at the end of the round, less than $10,000 away from the leader, Jamie Ding. In the end, Morales would not be able overtake neither Jamie Ding nor David Ley, as he wagered all of his $10,200 on the Final Jeopardy! but was the only contestant to get it incorrect, ending with a final score of $0.