La Conner brain team places at state

Two teams from La Conner High School competed in the state Knowledge Bowl tournament held in Arlington on Saturday.

Team “Somewhat Clean” finished in fourth place, and team “Somewhat Smart,” Emily Parker, Lily Weigova, Maggie Powell, and Katie Cram came in a respectable 18th.

Somewhat Clean’s fourth place award plaque in the 2B category is something that hasn’t been earned by a La Conner team since 2004.

Senior Alex Wirth, juniors Jordan Holt and Luke Hulbert, sophomores Will Malcomson and homeschooler Kaleb Slaatthaug are the brains of Somewhat Clean. They narrowly missed a chance at placing even higher.

While they had the highest overall score of any team in their division, with 132 correct answers out of a total of 350 questions presented in both oral and written rounds, they missed out on the championship title based on the way the scores are tallied in the final rounds.

It’s something akin to presidents who win the popular vote but lose the election. Northwest Christian School from Spokane took home the title of State Champions with only a total of 106 points by day’s end, but it was when those points were earned that made all the difference.

“Somewhat Clean” breezed through the early morning rounds. They held the lead and were at the top of their game by the end of the qualifying period.

By lunchtime, half the teams were sent home, while the top nine teams progressed to the semi-final round in the afternoon, where the rules of the game changed — the slate was wiped clean, and all previous points no longer mattered.

Three different rooms housed three different teams, all vying for a first place position by the end of another set of 50 questions in math, science, literature, grammar, current events, history, pop culture and politics. The first place winners from each room then went on to compete for first, second and third place in the final championship round.

“Somewhat Clean” had a rough start in the first half of the semi-finals and were trailing by several points going into the final 25 questions of that round, but then one after another, they answered correctly and slowly brought up their score.

Tensions were high as the bulk of the audience consisted of La Conner parents and family.

For a few moments, it seemed possible that “Somewhat Clean” stood a good chance at a come-from-behind victory to take first place. But in the end, they were still a few points shy of pulling it off.

It was a somber moment when they realized they’d be competing against the other second place winners for either fourth, fifth or sixth place.

La Conner scored 18 points in the final round — higher than any of the other nine finalist teams, but it couldn’t change their standing.

“To our students’ credit, while they were disappointed not to get a chance to play for first place, they bounced back and won their room in the final round and finished fourth overall for 2B schools in the state,” said a proud Coach Ben Hazelwood.

The team was happy to have made it to fourth place, but they all knew they have what it takes to win the championship. It just didn’t happen this year.