For the second year in a row, Manhattan High Scholars Bowl team has come home with second. Saturday Feb. 11, Scholars Bowl took second place at their state tournament. Among the students from Manhattan High were eight other teams competing alongside them.

“Including us there were five really good teams,” coach Ted Dawdy said.

They finished their pool play with an overall record of 4-3 also putting them in a three-way tie with Washburn Rural and Lawrence Free State.

“Free State had beaten both teams so they were the third seed. We beat Washburn Rural head to head in pool play so we advanced as the 4th seed. That put us against the number one seed Wichita East who was 7 – 0,” Dawdy said.

With their victory score of 70-20, they advanced them into the championship match against Free State.

“The state final was the third and fourth seeds and they beat us 60-20 in the final,” Dawdy stated.

Last year when the team was led by then-senior Josh Schwartz, they anticipated on winning the state championship. The team ended up being Regional runner up to Blue Valley, the only team they knew could get in the way. In last year’s state tournament, they qualified once again for the championship.

“We felt a little bit fortunate to be in that state championship match as we’d only beaten Wichita East once the whole year and it was in that semi-final match,” Dawdy said. “This year’s group was ecstatic with second because they had to compete hard to get there when they weren’t necessarily expecting to be.”