Written by Erika Renkl |
The High School Bowl teams meet in Haddam-Killingworth High School at the end of every year to compete in the Shoreline Tournament. All nine teams meet in the quarterfinals, which took place on Thursday, May 8 this year. The teams are seeded based on their number of wins, and if there’s a tie, it’s broken by the total number of points earned throughout the season. This year, Morgan was seeded first with just two losses throughout the season. We won in a match in the quarterfinals against Haddam-Killingworth with a score of 205-140, and on Thursday, May 15, we won in the semifinals against Hale Ray with a difference of over 100 points. Valley competed against Lyme-Old Lyme in the second game of the semifinals, and, after, the first half, Valley pulled ahead to tie the game at 220-220 in the end. The game went into sudden-death overtime, meaning the first person to get a correct answer won. Valley ended up winning on the second toss-up question and proceeded to the finals against Morgan.
Morgan started the final match with Seniors Ian Barron, Madelyn Corbett, and Emily Cuseo, as well as Junior Lucas Cummings. Valley was ahead in score for the majority of the game. It came down to the wire with a final score of 170-200. Had Morgan answered one more ten-point toss-up and the following twenty-point bonus question in the fourth quarter, we would have won the match. However, Valley correctly answered a ten-point toss-up in the last minute and won the shoreline championship.
Though the loss was tough for the team, especially the seniors, the position of second in the shoreline is a fine ending for the season. In the past two years, the team did not even make it to the finals. The last time Morgan won the High School Bowl Shoreline Championship was three years ago in 2011. Good luck to the team next year.
Anyone interested in joining the team next year should attend the practices in the beginning of 2014-2015! To learn more about the team and how the matches work should read Erika Renkl’s article “High School Bowl: The Varsity Sport of the Mind” about our most recent home meet.