785-243-1435
Geary County campus
631 Caroline Avenue
Junction City, KS 66441
785-238-8010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 30, 2008
Contact: Todd Leif, Ext. 216
Quiz Bowl Team Takes Third at State Tournament
(CONCORDIA, KS) Posting a record of 6 and 3, the Cloud County Community College quiz bowl team at the Concordia Campus competed in the final event of the season, the Kansas Academic Excellence State championship, placing third. The two-day round robin and seeded double elimination tournament was held at Colby Community College on April 18 and 19. Team members who competed for Cloud’s Birdbrains team included Concordians Ryan LaBarge and Graham Pritchett; Dustin Key, Wakefield; and the Scandia/Courtland area’s Nathan Stensaas.
The competition on Friday included a two pool 5 team round robin where both of the brackets finished with 3 teams having 3-1 records. Cloud County Community College received the number 7 seed into the 8 man field through a double elimination tournament based on average points per match. Cloud County then defeated the number 2 overall seed and number 1 seed from the east automatic qualifier, Neosho County, in the first round to advance on the winner’s side of the bracket. Next the Birdbrains faced the number 3 seed and eventual state champion Colby during round two, where they were narrowly defeated. In the losers’ bracket, Cloud defeated Garden City and Johnson County Community College, placing the Birdbrains into the state semi-final match where they were defeated by Pratt Community College by a score of 135 to 100.
Pratt, the top seed in the tournament and National Academic Quiz Bowl Tournament Kansas qualifier, was beaten by Colby for the eventual K-AEC state championship. The Cloud County Birdbrains have finished as runners-up to Colby the previous two years of this tournament.
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Total points at the regional and state meets are combined to designate qualifiers for the Most Valuable Player and All-Team Awards. This year, only one team with an MVP made it into the top three, making the state competition more of a best team competition. Individual points were:
Graham Pritchett, 150 at state and 240 combined;
Ryan LaBarge, 120 at state and 190 combined;
Dustin Key, 40 at state and 210 combined;
Nathan Stensaas, 210 at state and 390 combined.
The Birdbrains’ final record overall was 9 and 4. Cloud’s Academic Quiz Bowl teams are coached by college instructors Todd Leif and Nick Jones.
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Photo Cutline: L to R
Cloud County Community College Birdbrains Quiz Bowl Team members standing in front of a storm chasing machine in Hays:
Nathan Stensaas, Ryan LaBarge, Graham Pritchett, and Dustin Key