Kris Miller
Hiawatha World

The Red Hawk Scholar’s Bowl varsity team scored 7-1 and earned second place at the Perry Lecompton 12-team meet on Wednesday, Jan. 22.

The Red Hawks faced several northeast Kansas teams that they had not faced yet during this season. The varsity team finished with 5-0 in pool play with sizable margins of victory in all but one of the rounds. This earned the Red Hawks a chance to compete in the championship pool, which was designed so that every team in each preliminary pool could have at least three to four extra rounds to determine placing for each team.

While competing in the championship pool, Hiawatha defeated McLouth at 60-20 and also dispatched Jefferson West 70-10 in the semifinal round to face Oskaloosa in the finals.

In the championship match, Oskaloosa defeated the Red Hawks and won 30-25 for the first place finish. Scholar’s Bowl Coach Nolan Sump expressed pride in how far the Red Hawks came during the Perry Lecompton competition.

“Despite the placing, the fact we outscored many of our competitors by at least 40 points per round was pretty exciting,” Sump said. “It shows the team is internalizing what they learn in practice, it shows they are able to work together to come up with the right answer and it shows they are resilient to the end.”

The next competition for the Red Hawks Scholar’s Bowl team will be on January 27 with league at Jefferson West and a junior varsity meet at Oskaloosa.