By DELBERT PETERS

Staff writer

Goessel High School won the Class 1A Division 1 Scholars Bowl state championship Saturday at Centre, with a tiebreaker deciding the outcome.

Four teams had 3-2 records at the end of the championship round. Among the four teams tied, Goessel was 2-1 and had defeated Satanta who was also 2-1 in games with the final four teams.

“I’m not sure how much studying this team did outside of class,”  Coach Wes Schmidt-Tieszen said, “but I contend that practices are very important as they work on speed, potential situations, and the rules of challenges which came into play in this tournament.”

Goessel got off to a rough start in the preliminary round-robin round, losing to Downs-Lakeside and Macksville. Needing three wins to advance to the championship round, Goessel defeated Hanover 40-20, Lebo 40-30, and Hoxie 75-10.

“Many teams would have been demoralized and given up after losing the first two rounds, but this group continued as though nothing had happened,” Schmidt-Tieszen said.

Goessel faced Macksville for the fourth time in 10 days to open the championship round. While the Bluebirds lost the three prior meetings, this time they won 40-30.

Against Leavenworth Immaculata, the Bluebirds asked the judges for a ruling on an answer and won the challenge en route to a 50-35 win.

The team’s third win came against Satanta 50-35.

Goessel lost matches to Rolla and Downs-Lakeside to finish the round 3-2, setting up the tiebreaker that won the Bluebirds’ first state championship.

Team members were captain Gentry Thiessen, Erin Brubaker, Aaron Woelk, Alicen Meysing, Zach Wiens, and Benedict Heyl.