The Manhattan High School Varsity Scholars Bowl team ended their season with a fifth-place finish at the 6A State Championship. After winning the League and Regional titles, the team used their experience and quick reflexes to compete at the State level.

“Overall I thought we had a pretty good season,” sophomore Spenser Cunningham said. “We did well, it didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but this was probably the best overall season that I’ve seen us have in a while.”

While the team missed a podium finish, the season had plenty of fun moments.

“I loved when we split our team and did a 3v3 during our bye round at League and we beat our teammates 90 to negative-15,” junior Solon Xia said. “They did get their revenge during our 3v3 at regionals though.”

The Indians went 4-3 during the pool play portion of the State tournament. Even with a winning record, the team missed the final playoff rounds because of a tiebreaker.

“I think we need to work on keeping our cool, if we lose one match it’s not the end of the world and we can’t let ourselves get in our own heads,” Cunningham said.

The team improved significantly as the season went on. By learning to work together and adapt to different question styles, they became a much more cohesive and dangerous unit.

“Aside from just developing team synergy, I think that one of the biggest things we’ve learned is exactly how we have to play, as well as the importance of adapting to the types of questions asked and predicting answers,” Xia said.

The State tournament came down to the wire in many games. In many rounds, the difference between winning and losing was just a fraction of a second on the buzzer.

“I felt like from what I heard that we may have rushed things a little bit and felt that pressure,” head coach Ted Dawdy said. “So hopefully again by having that experience next year we’ll handle that better.”

The team’s ability to answer questions on many subjects helped them score high all winter. However, the stress of the state environment made things difficult in the final rounds.

“We ended up being a little unlucky in some of the games at state,” sophomore Micheal Amama said. “So we got fifth place despite arguably having a stronger team than last year.”

Most of the Varsity players will be returning to the team, making them a tough team to beat next year.

“Looking forward, we’ve got almost our entire team coming back, only [senior] Daniel Ortiz is graduating, so that’s good news and we can only get better from here,” Cunningham said.

The team plans to focus on their mental toughness next season. They want to make sure they can stay calm during the most important matches.

“Next year, just being able to bounce back from losses more quickly and easily, this year we were not in the best state of mind for some rounds, also being more aggressive and buzz in earlier,” Xia said.