Liberty Bell High School finished in seventh place in the state tournament at Arlington High School on Saturday (March 14).
Team members Rowan Post (captain), Willy Duguay, Brennen Quigley and Sebastian Hogness defeated Northwest Christian/Spokane and Harrison Prep in the championship round to take the seventh-place finish.
The Mountain Lions competed against 17 other teams in the 2B division. The 18 teams were split into two brackets of nine teams each. In a series of one written and four oral rounds, each team competed against the others in a three-team round of 50 questions.
Liberty Bell began the morning in the lead after scoring 40 out of 50 points in the written round with alternates Skyler Fitzmaurice and Danny Rodriguez assisting. The written round was followed by four 50-question oral rounds.
In the first round, the Lions scored 14 points to best Wahkiakum, with nine points, and Northwest Christian/Lacy with 11 points. Liberty Bell tied with Waitsburg with 15 points and out-answered Toledo, with nine points, in the second round.
In the third oral round, Liberty Bell faced the eventual state champions, St. George’s, for the first of two matches. St. George’s coasted to the win with 23 points while Liberty Bell answered with eight and Kettle Falls scored one point. In the last round, the Mountain Lions were back on top with 16 points, ahead of Adna with points and Easton with three.
The morning left Liberty Bell in fourth place within their bracket. In the semifinals, the Mountain Lions competed against Tonasket and the domineering St. George’s team. At the end of 50 questions, St. George’s won with 18 points to advance to championship round.
Liberty Bell and Tonasket were tied with eight points apiece. After a ten-question tie-breaker, the teams were still tied with three points each, so the teams entered another 10-question tie-breaker round. Tonasket answered the tenth question correctly to take a 4 -3 win and advance to the fourth-fifth-sixth-place round while the lions then went to the seventh-eighth-ninth-place round.
