State Scholars' Bowl Recap
Launch the media gallery 1 playerGoessel 5th at 2025 State 1A Div I Scholars Bowl
Congratulations to this year’s Goessel Scholars Bowl team for representing our school, town, and league well at this year’s State Scholars Bowl championship. Goessel Seniors Colby Nafziger (captain), Jack Nickel, Becca Impson, Braxton Unruh, Luke Stucky and Viola Schmidt participated at this year’s championship held at the largest 1A school in the state, Lincoln Jr/Sr High in Lincoln, KS. This has been a group of Seniors who have done well and who have progressed through years of being together. Coaches for the Bluebirds are Braden Unruh and Marcia Brubaker.
This year, the state was divided up into regional quadrants, with all the 1A Div I schools participating in one of these 4 regionals. Winners from each region were:
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Ellis Regional |
Frankfort Regional |
Flint Hills Regional |
Spearville Regional |
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Osborne 5-0 1st |
Allen N Heights 4-1 1st |
Wichita Independent 5-0 1st |
Greensburg KC 4-1 1st |
|
Ness City 4-1 2nd |
Onaga 4-1 2nd |
Goessel 4-1 2nd |
Elkhart 4-1 2nd |
|
Tribune 3-2 3rd |
Centralia 3-2 3rd |
Canton Galva 2-3 3rd |
Meade 3-2 3rd |
KSHSAA divides all 1A schools by numbers in grades 9-12 and in 2024-2025 there are 112 schools ranging in size from 15 to 108. Division I picks up approximately half of these schools and the other half participate as Division II .
Goessel showed extremely strong at the Flint Hills Regional and looked forward to a strong day February 15, 2025, the day after Valentine’s Day at Lincoln. This year’s team has participated in numerous meets throughout the season with various personnel at each meet. Koy Smith participated at the Flint Hills regional but was unable to be present at the state meet. Saturday, February 15, would be a cold, blustery cloudy day on the plains with the high for the day reached around midnight last night and temperatures steadily falling throughout the day.
High noon, the traditional state scholars bowl start time, and this year’s teams gathered in the commons at Lincoln for preliminary instructions. Participating teams are divided into pools based on their regional performances, with two #1 seeds, two #2 seeds and two #3 seeds in each pool. Thus, the seeding is done in advance based on regional performance. #2 seed Goessel was placed in pool B with #1 seeds Greensburg and Northern Heights, #2 seed Ness City, and #3 seeds Centralia and Meade. Pool A had #1 seeds Independent, Osborne, #2 seeds Onaga and Elkhart and #3 seeds Canton and Tribune. Goessel was well represented with quite a few parents, Mr. Boden, and others supporting the team.
Meade Round 1 Ag Room
All teams seemed to struggle in the language component today, but in Fine Arts, Becca came through with Whittier as the artist on the first interruption of the day to go to 10-0. Meade surged in Science & Health to 30-10, but Braxton came back strong with the 1874 invention that changed life in the Midwest (barbed wire). 30-20. Jack got the area of a container to knot 30-30 and then scored big on integers divisible to lead 40-30. Meade got the Queen of Swing to go 40-40 and no one got the year in review question of who took over the leadership of the Governors’ group after Walz decided to run for VP: Laura Kelly. This one went into OT with the tie and this tie-breaker was Social Sciences: Volcano that erupted November 13, 1985 in South America…. Goessel guessed Peru but Meade came back in with the correct answer: Columbia… 40-50. 0-1
Centralia Round 2 Science Room
This would be one of the Bluebird’s best efforts of the day against the eventual #2 team in the state. With the deep voiced moderator and many science experiments surrounding all in attendance, Colby got the foreign language statement, then Becca buzzed in on an interrupt in Fine Arts, Goessel got the unit of sound, and Braxton came out of nowhere with “ Ol Possum’s Book” by TS Eliot. In Science, it was Braxton again getting “weathering” for rocks breaking up, and Jack nailed 3360 joules in math for the 50-0 lead. In Social Science, Colby lit it up with Limited Liability Company, spelling out for the judges what they expected as LLC. Braxton found pay dirt in math with the distance a ladder was leaning for 70-10, and despite no other answers, the Blue was on track for the W, 70-40. 1-1
Northern Heights Round 3 Science Room
Would the Science Room be the “lucky room” today? Becca jumped on the Czech author question out of the chute to lead 10-0 in Language Arts. In Science, both teams appeared stumped on the pioneer species, but Colby came through with “lichens” and in Social Science Goessel got Ho Chi Minh as the party who warned at the Treaty of Versailles about SE Asia becoming a hotbed later in the century. 30-0. No one was able to decipher the probability question, but Jack was spot on with both the angle (90 degrees) and ratio of cats to dogs to go to 50-0 in a superb math outing. In Year in Review, Colby interrupted to nail the Mexican election result question for the superb 60-10 win, the widest spread of the day for Goessel, putting the Bluebirds in an excellent pool position at 2-1.
Ness City Round 4 Social Studies Room
Becca got the Golden Fleece in Language Arts but it was tough going and Goessel went to 10-30 in math until Braxton sprang back into it on the calculated formula value 20-30 and Jack buzzed in with a very deliberate 6 + 8 to knot at 30-30. Ness City found pay dirt on sitar in Fine Arts, but Colby got in first at the end of the round in Year in Review – Federal Aid Program common name to knot at 40-40. It was yet another tie and this time the tie-breaker question came from language arts. No one could come up with the playwright and the 2nd round tiebreaker went to math. This one featured the 3rd side of a triangle and Jack hit the buzzer ahead of the Ness team, the eventual 4th place state winner, with the correct answer for the most satisfying and needed win of the day 50-40. 3-1
Greensburg – Kiowa County Round 5 Social Studies Room
Goessel was on the red buzzers and Greensburg on the green (how else could it be?) for this one. Greensburg had not notched any wins in the round up to this point; clad all in formal black, the Green team looked imposing despite their record. Neither team could get traction through Language, Language Arts, Science and Math until Jack got the length of the stop sign/ truck shadow to knot at 10-10. In Fine Arts, Gilbert and Sullivan slipped through and the Green team somehow buzzed on Monet to lead 20-10 and no one could identify the Secret Service Director who resigned in Year in Review. This one “got away” and possibly created a negative vibe going into finals. 3-2
The top three teams progressed out of pool into the final championship round.
Pool A
Wichita Independent 5-0 255 point differential
Osborne 4-1
Elkhart 2-3 Head to head v other teams and point differential
Tribune 2-3
Onaga 2-3
Canton-Galva 0-5
Pool B
Ness City 4-1 70 point differential
Goessel 3-2 70 point differential
Centralia 3-2 Head to head v Goessel
Allen-Northern Heights 2-3
Meade 2-3
Greensburg–Kiowa County 1-4
All teams gathered in the commons again and those who did not make it out of the pool round said goodbye to Lincoln. The six remaining teams were randomly assigned to their matches in the championship round. Goessel drew a near perfect lineup, starting with teams they had played and leading up to the favorite, Wichita Independent.
It was back to the Science Room, which had been good to the Bluebirds……
Championship Round #1 Centralia Science Room
Nerves were at a high edge starting out and neither team could get traction in the friendly confines of the Lincoln Science room. Through the language question, language arts, science and health it was a steady 0-0 on the board. Centralia got the Lusitania for the ship sinking and a 45 second math question to lead going down the stretch, but Braxton came back huge, interrupting on the Donatello sculpture with “David!” Moments later, everyone in the Bluebird audience beamed with glee as he chimed in again with the British actor who passed away in Year in Review. Tie! 20-20. Once again, the tiebreaker was language arts and the question went over the heads of nearly everyone in attendance. 2nd tiebreaker……no buzzes…… late buzz Centralia; 1794 Group of Farmers / rebellion. Sheepishly, green number 3 answered “whiskey rebellion” and that answer was correct for the huge win for the Panthers. Goessel had beaten Centralia soundly earlier in the same room, so this was a tough loss. 0-1
Championship Round #2 Osborne Social Studies Room
Osborne left the Bluebirds at the short end of the scoring through all rounds until the last math question. Down 30-0, Goessel needed something. In the last of three consecutive 45 second math questions, Jack calculated, pondered, buzzed and got the area of the volume of a cone to stay in it at 10-30. In Year in Review, Colby got one more answer with Brett Favre, but it was not enough to get over the hump, and this one ended 20-40 against a very solid team with difficult questions. 0-2
Championship Round #3 Elkhart Ag Room
Fans are surprised to see Elkhart, from a relative large town in Kansas, appear at a 1A level tournament. They are the 2nd largest 1A school in Kansas next to Lincoln. Back in the Ag Room, this was the best championship round showing for the Bluebirds. Elkhart got the language question to start, but the Blue team was ready to go with Becca getting the disillusion of writers, Colby getting the paired (binary) stars, then going up 30-10 with Bali and Sumatra part of Indonesia. Jack impressed all in attendance with the calculus answer approaching infinity, then Becca got bass as the musical instrument. In Year in Review, Elkhart buzzed in but answered before they were recognized, essentially giving the points to Goessel. Of course, the answer was nothing other than Mitch McConnell. With the 5 point penalty Goessel won 60-15 in the their best championship round showing. 1-2
Championship Round #4 Ness City Social Studies Room
With the rapid fire moderator in the Social Studies Room it was back against Ness City, another larger town with a small school. Ness has one of the smallest Div 1A I attendance numbers with 75. Goessel had snuck by their school in pool play by a whisker, giving them their only loss. This time, Ness would not be out-foxed, going up 0-40 until Braxton got 3 liters in Math, but bounced to 10-50 after all the math questions. Viola buzzed in, getting the Highwaymen answer to close to 20-50, but it was too little too late and this one went to 20-50 and Goessel was pretty much going for third or fourth place. 1-3
Final Championship Round #5 Wichita Independent Social Studies Room
If the rest of the championship round would have flowed as desired, this match could have been a premier event. Independent had crushed opponents at Regionals. They amassed a huge point differential total in the pool round. Perhaps the rapid fire moderator put them off in the Social Studies room, a room they had not been in prior to that round. Green #3 interrupted on the Shakespearean faeries and Goessel was up -5 to 0! Independent was flagged again for an interruption on the President who advocated Manifest Destiny (Polk) and it was back to 0-10. Jack got the Bluebirds on the board with the score needed on final exam (93%) and it was staying close 10-20 against the best team at the tournament. Despite several more buzzes in, both teams could find no further traction and this one ended 10-20. Goessel came a hair’s width away from giving the Independent team its only loss of the tournament – they still would have won 1st place with a 4-1 record. 1-4
The team today had several great rounds and a couple rounds slipped out of the grasp. Such it is with Scholars Bowl. Congratulations on a fun year and thanks to each State team member as well as the many other students who participated on the team this year.
Final Standings:
Championship Round
State Champions Div 1A I Wichita Independent 5-0
Runner up Centralia 4-1
Third Place Osborne 3-2
Fourth Place Ness City 2-3
Fifth Place Goessel 1-4
Sixth Place Elkhart 0-5
Overall record (pool and championship)
Wichita Independent 10-0
Centralia 7-3
Osborne 7-3
Ness City 6-4
Goessel 4-6
Elkhart 2-8
Big wins today v. Centralia and Ness City in pool and Elkhart in championship round play!
-Karl Brubaker
