The Scholars Bowl team took second at state Saturday, losing to Washburn Rural.  The team consisted of junior Gautham Prakash and seniors Johnathon Davis, Howard Grimberg, Kevin Hansen, Tyler Kalmus and Yanjie Yu.

BV went to state for the first time in school history sponsored by math teacher Adam Wade.

“It was really exciting being the first team to do this competition from our school,” Yu said. ”We had two other tournaments this year so we kind of knew what to expect for state.” 

The team qualified for state Feb. 4 by tying for second place at regionals where they went 8-2, including two wins over eventual state champion Washburn Rural.

At the state competition, located at Wichita Northwest High School, BV was one of eight qualifying teams.  BV got off to an early start in the final match but couldn’t hold on to their lead.

“Overall, it was a tremendously successful season for us,” Wade said.  “We finished with a record of 26-7, but more importantly second in class 6A.”

During the competition, the team answered questions from various categories including foreign language, language arts, science, social studies, math, fine arts and year in review.

The format for the competition is similar to that of Categories in that you have to be the first to buzz in and answer a question correctly in order to earn the points.  Teams are awarded 10 points for each correct answer and are penalized five points for answering incorrectly.

In addition to the students competing at state, senior Aziza Moola, juniors Allen Xu and Holden Rolfs and sophomore Allen Zhu were also members of the squad.

by Stephanie Roche