Max Mitchell’s recommendation of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” as his team’s walk-up tune for the Class 4A Scholars Bowl state final on Saturday showed the Eudora senior had an appreciation for music of an era that preceded him.
 
So when the final question of the Cardinals’ championship match against Bishop Miege centered on the late Jimmy Buffett, who, like Zeppelin, found his musical stride in the 1970s, Mitchell was ready to answer.
 
Only he didn’t.
 
“I buzzed, but I didn’t want to interrupt,” Mitchell said.
 
Eudora took a cautious approach to the final two questions on the championship stage at McPherson Middle School. Armed with an insurmountable lead – as long as they avoided a potential 5-point interruption penalty – the Cardinals conceded the final points to Miege but held on for a 45-40 victory that gave them the program’s first state title.
 
Mitchell and fellow senior Justin Shoemaker were part of a Eudora squad that reached the 4A semifinals two years ago. For Saturday’s title run, they were joined by senior Georgia Martin, juniors Addy Barnard and Nate van Foeken, and sophomore Eugene White.
  
Mitchell played a big role in landing the Cardinals the championship trophy. He scored 240 points – nearly half of Eudora’s tournament total – as the Cardinals went 4-3 in pool play before knocking off defending champion Louisburg in the semifinals and Miege in the finale.
 
Eudora’s 60-20 victory over Louisburg in its penultimate match was a significant achievement. The Cardinals were winless against the regional champions this season and fell to the Wildcats 70-50 earlier Saturday in the round-robin segment.
 
“When it mattered, we all pulled together and we got through it,” Mitchell said. “It means a lot because they’ve kind of been the antagonist to this whole season. And then to go up against Miege in the actual championship, they’re a great school in a bunch of different activities, so winning against them is really something.”
 
Prior to the finals, tournament host and McPherson Scholars Bowl coach Ricardo Sanchez had the teams choose a song to accompany their climb to the stage for the showcase matches. Mitchell offered Eudora coach Jim Barnard a couple suggestions, including the English rock band Zeppelin’s thumping track from 1970.
 
“I don’t even remember his other suggestion, but I know I liked this one better so that was what I went with,” Barnard said. “I thought it was a great hype song for the moment.”
 
Miege defeated Eudora 50-20 in pool play and took the lead early in the championship match. But the Cardinals answered three consecutive questions to take the lead and used their closing power to build a 25-point lead with two questions remaining.
 
“We’re pretty good at English and science, but our best categories are for sure math and probably social studies,” Shoemaker said. “We also have a really strong competitor for fine arts. So our back half is always kind of stronger than our first half, we think.
 
“Going down early is tough, but it’s actually good that way because we never lose that mentality or that hope because we know when we get to math and social studies, we can get it back.”
 
As the championship comprehension set in, Shoemaker implored his teammates to allow the moderator to complete the questions. An interruption and incorrect answer were the only things that could prove costly.
 
“I was like, ‘Put your hands in your pocket. We’re home free,’” Shoemaker said. “Having the realization we were going to win two rounds before it was over was such a weird feeling.”
 
Louisburg, which led the pool-play portion of the tournament with a 5-2 record, bounced back to defeat Rose Hill 70-45 in the third-place match. Rose Hill, Miege, Eudora and Mulvane all went 4-3 in pool play, with Mulvane eliminated from the semifinals via the tiebreaker procedure.
 
The balanced competition paralleled the regional Eudora hosted, and gave Barnard confidence his team had a chance to prevail at state.
 
“Many of our kids are involved in other sports in the fall and winter so this group didn’t practice together consistently and they didn’t compete as a team together until the league meet,” Barnard said. “We were mixing and matching  these students with other scholars bowl team members for the majority of the season.
 
“But in the final weeks leading up to regionals and state, they studied and practiced a lot together to the point where I felt we could score between 50-80 points in any round. And if you score that much you should at least be competitive.”
 

HOST WICHITA EAST WINS 6A TITLE IN FIRST SEASON UNDER TOLBERT
 
Host Wichita East opened the Class 6A state Scholars Bowl tournament by honoring David Shelly, the Blue Aces’ retired coach and teacher who was inducted into the Kansas State High School Activities Association Hall of Fame.
 
The Aces finished the tournament with their sixth 6A championship and first under Shelly’s successor, Xan Tolbert.
 
East won 9 of 10 matches, the last a 60-30 victory over Wichita Northwest that gave the Aces their second state title in four years.
 
East’s squad of senior Oliver Christians, juniors Ben Allen, Luke Budde, Bo Lu and Tri Lam, and sophomore Gaurish Sridhar posted a 6-1 record in pool play – losing only 75-70 to eventual third-place finisher Washburn Rural. The top seed in the four-team championship bracket then defeated Free State 100-30 in the semifinals before taking down Northwest.

With 35 players competing at the novice, junior varsity and varsity levels, Tolbert – an assistant to Shelly last year – inherited a program rich in depth. He took advantage of that in the postseason, with Christians being the lone holdover for state after he teamed with Ailynne Tran, Eli Fox, Anderson Tung, Gavin Winkleman and Nathan Phan to win the 6A regional at Derby.
 
After qualifying for state in all 27 seasons under Shelly, the Aces carried the success forward, winning the Greater Wichita Athletic League and four other regular-season tournaments to go with nine runner-up finishes. At state, East’s six victories in pool play were by 30 points or more and the Aces scored 90 or more in four of their state matches.
 
Rural, which fell 90-45 to Northwest in the semifinals, came back to defeat Free State 70-55 for third.
 

KAPAUN RALLIES TO WIN SIXTH CLASS 5A TITLE
 
Offering proof to the adage that it’s not how you start but how you finish, Kapaun Mt. Carmel rebounded from a slow beginning to the Class 5A state tournament in Hutchinson and won its sixth state Scholars Bowl title with a victory over Wichita crosstown rival Bishop Carroll in the final.
 
The Crusaders’ team of seniors Michael Phan and Sydney Vermeeren, juniors Aidan Ingalls and Benjamin Weber, and sophomores Ava Truong and Graham McCandless edged Carroll 50-40 in the championship match for its first state title since 2017.
 
“This season’s focus was on developing our ability as a team to both communicate well and play to each others’ strengths,” Kapaun coach Dan Fortino said. “In the end, we attribute our success in the state tournament to our camaraderie as a team and a willingness to fully invest in this activity as well as each other.”
 
Resilience was another element present in Kapaun’s run to the title. The Crusaders opened the eight-team pool-play portion of the tournament with a 110-40 loss to Carroll and a 95-20 loss to De Soto.
 
Kapaun found its footing in round 3, however, and never lost it. The Crusaders defeated Shawnee Heights, 2023 champion St. James Academy, Andover Central, Seaman and Salina Central in succession to earn the No. 2 seed for the bracketed semifinals with a 5-2 record.
 
After defeating Salina Central 65-60 in its final pool match, Kapaun topped the Mustangs again 70-45 to advance to the title match. Carroll, 6-1 in pool play, reached the final with a 70-45 victory over De Soto.
 

WICHITA COLLEGIATE RESETS AFTER REGIONAL, WINS EIGHTH CONSECUTIVE TITLE
 
After finishing second to Hesston in the Class 3A regional at Bluestem, Scholars Bowl powerhouse Wichita Collegiate returned to full strength and won all 10 of its matches to collect its eighth consecutive state title and 20^th overall.
 
The Spartans scored 90 or more points in four of their first five matches to win the Gold pool, then continued the domination in the finals round. Collegiate won its final five matches by an average of 83 points to take the title. Southeast of Saline, 4-1 in the finals round, finished second and Prairie View (3-2) was third.
 
Sophomore Ethan MacKenzie, the Spartans’ youngest squad member, scored 365 points in the tournament and correctly answered on 15 of 16 interruptions to lead Collegiate. Other team members included seniors Conner Schupbach, Paul Mines and Rahul Madhavan, and juniors Hannah Ternes and Shouvik Dev.
 
Harnessed by illness to two of its top players at regionals, the Spartans got through the tournament despite losses to Hesston and Halstead in the round-robin finals. With its roster intact for the state tournament in which the Spartans hosted, they flourished.
 
“The week of the regional tournament was undoubtedly the most challenging that I’ve faced in 11 seasons,” Collegiate coach Peter DeVries said. “Our roster was ravaged by the flu and some team members missed the entire week. We were very fortunate to have survived a highly talented regional.”
 
Collegiate returned to form at state to add to a list of achievements that included seven regular-season tournament titles, including its fourth straight victory at Bishop Carroll’s Tournament of Champions. That field included Class 6A champion Wichita East and 6A runner-up Wichita Northwest, 5A champion Kapaun and runner-up Carroll, and 2A runner-up Wichita Independent.
 

SACRED HEART NAVIGATES CHALLENGING PATH TO CLASS 2A THREE-PEAT
 
An 0-2 record against Sterling couldn’t keep Sacred Heart from winning its third consecutive Class 2A title, as the Knights swept their other eight matches in the preliminary and championship pool-play rounds to win the state tournament at Moundridge.
 
Sacred Heart finished 4-1 in both segments of the competition to emerge victorious. The difference in the championship round was a 50-25 victory over Wichita Independent, the lone team to match the Knights’ record in the finals.
 
The Knights’ roster included seniors Andy Marshall and Jason Marrs, and juniors Jaden King, Abram Anderson, Luke Newell and Nathan White.
 
“Sacred Heart had a great season this year,” Knights coach David Green said. “We’re honored to have won in such a competitive environment against so many great schools.”
 
The Knights raised their overall state title count to five – the last three under Green – despite falling twice to Sublette regional runner-up Sterling. The Black Bears topped Sacred Heart 50-25 in Pool B play en route to matching the Knights’ 4-1 preliminary round mark, and edged them 60-50 in the championship round. But Sterling’s 2-3 record in the finals left them behind the Knights, Independent, Moundridge and Hutchinson Trinity.
 
Sacred Heart was solid in close matches at state, winning four of five decided by 15 points or less.
 
“Team captain Andy Marshall put in a lot of hard work this season and provided great leadership to a team that was often divided between school, work, football and basketball responsibilities,” Green said.
 

ROCK HILLS COMPLETES CLIMB TO TOP OF CLASS 1A DIVISION I

It’s shaping up to be a pretty impressive decade for the Rock Hills Scholars Bowl team.
 
After finishing third at state two years in a row followed by a second-place showing last year, the Grizzlies posted a 4-1 record in the championship round Saturday to win their first Class 1A Division I title in the tournament at Frankfort. Team members Arielle Jacobs, Bella Volker, Cooper Rhea, Hannah Simmelink, Calen Beck and Ethan Wirth completed a season in which they finished in the top three at every meet.
 
“The level of competition at the state championship was incredible,” Rock Hills coach Chris Rhea said. “The Rock Hills Grizzlies showed grit and composure on their way to the championship with every team member contributing in important ways at critical moments.”
 
The Grizzlies’ roster of four seniors, a junior and a sophomore followed their unbeaten run through the Oberlin regional with an 8-2 record at state. Rock Hills shared the best record in the Pool B preliminary round with Hodgeman County at 4-1, losing only to Little River. In the six-team, round-robin championship round, Rock Hills fell to Hodgeman County, but topped Elkhart, Satanta, Ness City and Little River to take the title as the lone one-loss team in the finals.
 
Hodgeman County, the state champion each of the previous two years, finished second. Elkhart was third and Satanta took fourth.
 

HOME IS WHERE THE TITLE IS FOR HUTCH CENTRAL CHRISTIAN
 
Like Wichita East in Class 6A and Wichita Collegiate in 3A, serving as tournament host proved to be a rousing success for Hutchinson Central Christian.
 
The Cougars, led by junior Nathan Reed, won all 10 of their matches to capture the Class 1A Division II title in Hutchinson. It was Central Christian’s third state Scholars Bowl title and first since 2013.
 
Reed, the team captain, scored 505 points in the tournament as Central Christian won all five of its matches in the Green pool, then went unbeaten in the six-team championship round. His final answer to the Year-In-Review category question in the Cougars’ last match gave them a 25-20 victory over Centre and completed Central Christian’s unbeaten run through the tournament.
 
In addition to Reed, seniors Justus Huff and Adalynn MacArthur, juniors Brody Miller and Caleb Glover, and sophomore Konnor Sullivan competed for the Cougars.
 
The victory gave Central Christian a sweep of the Heart of the Plains League, regional and state tournaments.
 
“In addition to attending meets within their league, the team strives to attend meets at larger schools, providing tough competition and opportunity for growth,” Central Christian coach Kara Moore said.
 
Beloit-St. John’s, which went 8-2 with its lone losses to Central Christian, finished second at state. Wallace County finished third and Centre was fourth.