The Goessel Scholars Bowl team placed third at the Class 1A Division 1 tournament Saturday at Satanta.
The host school repeated as the state champion with Frankfort coming in second and Goessel third. Rounding out the top six teams were Axtell, Lebo and Macksville.
Representing Goessel were seniors Mark Schmidt, Heath Goertzen and Ben Wiens, juniors Gentry Thie?sen and Erin Brubaker, and sophomore Zach Wiens.
The team is coached by Wes Schmidt-Tieszen and Andrew Voth.
To start the day, Goessel won its six-team pool with a 4-1 record. The Bluebirds defeated Pike Valley 50-20, Satanta 55-35, Macksville 35-25 and Centre 75-20 and lost to Stockton 40-25.
Goessel then went 3-2 in the championship round. The Bluebirds lost to Frank??fort 40-15 and Satanta 50-25, but beat Lebo 40-30 when Erin Bru?baker correctly answered a tiebreaker question in social studies.
Goessel then defeated Macksville 50-25 by winning three of the last five questions, then knocked off Axtell 60-50 in a three-question tiebreaker round. Ben Wiens won the third tiebreaker question on the topic of foreign language.
?(These were) definitely heart-stopping, intense rounds, but team members came through in the clutch to pull out all three wins,? Schmidt-Tieszen said. ?The day definitely was a team effort as all team members got crucial questions at crucial times.?
No stranger to state competition, the Bluebirds placed third in 2013 and fourth in 2012.
?Ben was on all three of these teams, and Heath and Mark were on both third-place teams,? Schmidt-Tieszen said. ?These three seniors will definitely be missed, but there are outstanding underclassmen ready to step in and pick up the slack next year.?
