STAPLES — Two Pine River-Backus Knowledge Bowl teams attended the first round robin meet at CLC Staples on Jan. 26. PR-B 1, consisting of Juniors: Spokesperson Olivia Anderson, Cash Kangas, and Trinity Osman with Freshman Katelyn Burns took third place in the 32 team meet. PR-B 2, an all Freshman team of: Spokesperson Tate Bisted, Rilian Goble, LeeAnn Wynn, Helen Kerbel, and Morgan King took 29th. Despite HS meets being open to ninth graders, few were present on other teams and no other team was as young as PR-B 2. Other schools competing were Wadena-Deer Creek (WDC 6 teams), Crosby-Ironton (CI 6 teams), Upsala (UPS 2 teams), Nevis (NEV 7 teams), Sebeka (SEB 4 teams), Henning (HEN 3 teams), and Staples-Motley (SM 2 teams).
The written round saw both PR-B teams needing to work harder for the rest of the day. PR-B scored 38, putting them in 11th place but a solid 8 points out of first place. PR-B 2 had a respectable 31 for a team that had not been exposed to a decent amount of the information on the test and began the day in 28th place.
Oral round one saw PR-B 1 score 15 points versus WDC 3’s 12 and NEV 5’s 5. This pushed them up into sixth place overall and was a sign of how much of the rest of the day was to go. PR-B 2 also did quite well against SEB 4 and CI 6. Hitting well above their age class they won the room with 10 points to SEB’s 6 and CI’s 8, which also moved them up to 20th place, their high mark for the meet.
PR-B 1 continued its winning ways in oral round two. Against SEB 3 and CI 5 they had a day high 17 points against 15 and 5. It had looked like a second place finish in the room but in the final 15 questions PR-B was able to pull ahead, not only of the room but to also move up to third place in the standings. PR-B 2 faced UPS 2 and CI 2 and was not able to pull out a win. UPS 2 scored 12, CI 2 scored 10 and PR-B was able to garner 6, but it dropped them to 29th place. Here they found their youth and inexperience showed a bit more as they were not as competitive on buzzer speed and several of the questions were just out of their knowledge base.
Moving forward the team plans to focus more on American history, British history, Geography and rules of grammar.
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PR-B 2 did bounce back in oral round 3. They had a middle of the pack showing of 7 points compared to CI 3’s 4 and CI 6 earning 9. The rematch with CI 6 showing that fractions of a second of buzzer speed can make the difference. This result moved PR-B to 26th place. PR-B 1’s third place put them in room 1 facing WDC 2 and UPS 1, both of whom had spent the whole day to this point in room 1. PR-B 1 was again victorious with an 11 point victory to the 8’s of each of their opponents. This victory moved them into a narrow first place position with 81 points, three teams below them had 80 points and WDC 2 at 79 was certainly still a threat in fifth.
Oral round four had PR-B 2 facing off against NEV 7 and CI 6 again. This time, perhaps as a long day came to close, saw PR-B fall with only two points to NEV 7’s 6 and CI 6’s 8. This showing dropped the team to their final 29th position. PR-B 1 faced CI 4 and NEV 3. This round CI 4 was able to edge out PR-B 1 12 to 11 with NEV 3 scoring 8. WDC 2 in room 2 scored 14 however and rabbitted above both PR-B 1 and CI 4 to take first. CI 4, due to more time spent in room 1 edged out PR-B 1 by .5 points from Strength of Schedule tiebreakers to take second. PR-B 1, slightly disappointed but still justifiably proud, was able to take third place. Following the other round robin scores PR-B 1 also finds itself as the 9th ranked team in our 84 team region. Their next round robin is at 9 a.m., Feb. 9 at CLC Staples.
Pine River also attended the Tech HS invitational on Jan.28 where Juniors Spokesperson Olivia Anderson, Cash Kangas, Trinity Osman, and Freshmen Katelyn Burns, and Rilian Goble competed with 34 other teams including defending Class AA State Champion Buffalo. Battling well above their school size (PR-B’s MSHSL numbers are 202, the next smallest school had a population of 386 and most schools had over 700, with Buffalo having a size of 1735) PR-B was able to come out in 22nd place.
The written round was the low point of this match. With a score of 33 PR-B found itself in 29th place facing Rocori and Mora in oral round 1. PR-B was able to win the room with 11 points, their opponents each gaining 6. This performance advanced them into room seven where they faced Monticello and Buffalo 4. After another hard fought round PR-B won with 10 points, though both their opponents scored 8. In 17th place overall due to ties, PR-B moved into room 6 to face Sartell 2 and 4. It was another difficult match where PR-B was not able to win the room but with a final score of 11 for Sartell 2, 10 for PR-B and 9 for Sartell 4 it was certainly anybody’s room. Round 4 would be a direct repeat as all teams maintained their positions in the overall rankings. This round saw Sartell 4 end the day strong by scoring 13 points with Sartell 2 and PR-B both ending with 8. Their final score of 72 found PR-B in 22nd place. As Mora has double the student body of PR-B and the other schools faced had 4-10 times the student body to draw from PR-B should be very proud of its work at this invitational.
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