The Scholars Bowl team celebrated back-to-back state championships Saturday afternoon after beating Rock Creek.
This win is extra sweet for seniors Addy Barnard and Nate van Foeken and junior Eugene White because they were on last year’s winning team, as well. Junior Colton Jenkins and senior Ethan Feuerborn were also on this year’s team, along with junior alternate Henry Elmer.
Barnard is happy to close out her high school Scholars Bowl experience as a back-to-back winner.
“It feels amazing, because I feel like there’s a little more pressure on the defending state champions, like we were really good last year. So I feel like other teams were expecting us to come back and be good,” she said.
She’s been on the team since freshman year, but she started to find her groove as an upperclassmen, she said. Looking up to the older teammates always made her feel encouraged to get better. Now she leaves her legacy to next year’s team.
It’s always special to win at something like this just due to the random nature of the questions, Barnard said.
She said she felt pretty confident going into the day. Not only because of their second-place win at regionals, but also because of the practicing she’s been doing leading up to Saturday.
Based on numbers, she knew Eudora belonged at state, she said. She knew they had a chance at bringing home a trophy. The team’s well-rounded nature contributed to this win, she said.
Even if the team is down at the beginning, Barnard always knew they could come back with science, math and social studies questions. She and White were studying reading questions up until the competition, which paid off, she said.
Rock Creek had beaten them many times, so beating them at the championship is the ultimate comeback, she said.
“It’s the best way to end the season that I could possibly imagine,” she said.
Coach Jim Barnard said with the team’s practices the last couple of weeks, he felt good going into the day. With how sharp the team’s been, he thought they had a chance, he said. The back-to-back win feels “just crazy,” and something he’s still processing, he said.
He’s proud to see the hard work paying off for a second year in a row, he said. It never felt like they were going to be blown out of a match. It always felt like they had a chance, he said.
“I think we’re just strong across the board in a lot of different things. I don’t think we have, like, big, glaring weaknesses, and we score points in lots of different areas,” he said.
Seeing seniors go is always hard, but Barnard knows they have juniors and underclassmen who can help carry on this legacy, he said.
Van Foeken knew there were good teams showing up, but as the day went on they kept getting more and more wins under their belt, he said. The chances were looking more and more like they could make the back-to-back win a reality, he said. It was still a shock when the moment actually happened, though.
“Honestly, I was kind of surprised, very, very happy, though. It definitely made the day worth it,” he said.
As a senior, the win feels “insane,” he said. Seeing the varying strengths across all the teammates proves they have a lot going for them as a team, he said.
“It shows the effort that I put into it really helped. I really like Scholars Bowl, and I hope the program continues to do really well,” he said.
Reach reporter Sara Maloney at [email protected].
