Louisiana Quiz Bowl Team Delivers Second Straight State Championship
The Louisiana High School Quizbowl team captured their second consecutive Class 2 Scholar Bowl title on Friday, May 4 at the University of Missouri in Columbia and team captain Michael Powers took first place individually overall.
The Bulldogs went undefeated and took down each opponent in the tournament by a large margin. Louisiana clenched the top seed in the semifinal with powerful performances in the three preliminary rounds, averaging 556.67 points per game.
In the preliminaries, Louisiana handily defeated familiar adversary Calvary Lutheran 580-170 in the first round. Next the Bulldogs served up a 500-180 victory over Clarence Cannon Conference rival South Shelby. In the final round of the prelims Louisiana crushed Portageville 590-130.
The Bulldogs squared off with South Shelby again in the semifinal with a similar result, winning 510-180.
Louisiana took down College Heights Christian 490-260 to claim the state title for the second year in a row.
The Bulldogs are led by LHS junior Michael Powers who is the team captain. Powers captured first place individually in the tournament overall with an average of 31 tossups per game, earning him the top spot on both the All-Star and All-State teams.
LHS Quiz Bowl Coach Malia Jolly pointed out that Powers and the team broke several state records last weekend. The accomplishments include:
• Powers broke his own record for most tossups in one championship with 155 this year beating his record of 138 in 2017. He also set the record for most tossups in Class 2A with the same numbers.
• Powers broke the previous record of tossups by a junior that was previously held by Max Schindler with 132 in 2012.
• Powers broke the record for most tossups in one round with 35 this year beating the record previously held by Ross Simmons with 34 last year.
• Powers broke his own record set last year for most single game 2A tossups.
• Powers now holds the records for most tossups at state by a freshman, sophomore and a junior along with most games of 30+ tossups.
• The team smashed a 17-year record for most points in Class 2 with 2,610 this year to beat the previous record of 2,285 set by Richland in 2001.
• The team tied the record for most team points in a single round with 590 against Portageville this year. Richland set the record in 2015.
• The team set a new record for most tossups scored in a championship match in all classes with 29 this year.
• The team also scooped up the most correct tossups in Class 2 with 30, a record previously set by Richland in 1999.
• They also have the record for most points scored as a team in Class 2 beating the previous Richland record set in 2014.
Jolly said the records were confirmed by Sean Phillips and Jeffrey Hill of the Missouri Quizbowl Alliance.
