Scholars Bowl is regionals runner-up

Kami Bussmann, Staff Writer

Taking advantage of the van ride to go over questions in preparation for Regional Scholars Bowl in Wichita on Thursday paid off.

“We practiced questions for half of the way,” sophomore Josh Brandt said. “We didn’t do anything for the other half [of the way].”

Other than practicing on the way there, the team didn’t do any abnormal things to prepare for the meet, but still the Manhattan High School Scholars Bowl team is regionals runner-up with a record on the day of 8-2. The two rounds they lost were against Dodge City High School and undefeated Wichita East High School.

Scholars Bowl also had a problematic round against Junction City High School. The moderator read the question and before they finished reading a student on the team buzzed in because of being to concentrated on the answer and winning the round. This caused some controversy between the two teams. Manhattan High got the question right when the student answered it because the moderator recognized the student and the question was answered. This question determined who the winner was going to be. Junction City challenged the question due to the round being a score differentiate of one.

“The Junction City match was critical in us making it to the state competition,” senior Noah Shirk said.

Manhattan High captain Stephanie Fu replied that this same even happened in an earlier round and that question counted. Although Junction City wanted an extra round, the judges decided in favor of MHS. In the end it wouldn’t of mattered because the brackets showed that MHS would still be in second and JC would still be in fifth with or without the extra round.

This whole debacle caused a four-way-tie for third place between JC, MHS, Hutchinson High School and Derby High School. The round MHS faced Derby was a difficult round for the team.

They are a very good team they were just ahead of us at the time,” Brandt said. “We maintained our intensity throughout the round and won by 30.”

The team has fought adversities with available team members and has come out on top each time, Regionals was not any different. The road to being the top of the teams in the state will continue in Wichita on Thursday.