The Houston High School Scholar Bowl A Team took second place Saturday, Nov. 6, at the Houston Fall Invitational tournament.
In hosting their first competition of the season, the Tigers were outscored by only defending Class 3 state champion Fair Grove in the 15-school, 24-team competition. Three HHS A Team players earned individual medals for finishing in the top 15, as junior Ben Cook took fifth with 55 points per game, junior Andy Durham placed ninth with 49 per game and senior Devon Sawyer came in 12th with 43. Senior Alex Swallow was the A Team’s other player.
Cook, Durham and Sawyer are returning players from the HHS team that took third in the Class 3 state playoffs last spring. Sawyer is Houston’s captain this season.
Houston’s B Team placed 9th, with junior Emily Honeycutt earning a medal by finishing 15th with 40 points per game. Other HHS B Team members are Tyler Lawson, Xander Riggs and Lilly Scheliga and David Eastman.
Each squad can have four students compete at a time, and substitutions are allowed.
HHS SQUADS FINISH HIGH AT CLEVER
In a 30-team tournament last Saturday at Clever, the HHS A Team finished 5th and the B Team came in 6th.
Durham placed 5th in the individual standings, while, Lawson came in 7th and Devon Sawyer finished 10th.
Teams were divided into brackets of six and played 5 preliminary round matches. Houston’s A Team went 5-0 and the B Team went 4-1, with both advancing to the eight-team championship pool. In pool play, the HHS A Team went 1-2, beating Houston B and losing to Fair Grove and Kickapoo. Houston’s B Team lost to Houston A, Kickapoo and Fair Grove.
The HHS squads were then reseeded into a pool of four, with both downing Galena and Greenwood to secure the fifth and sixth spots overall.
HHS history teacher Jason Pounds is the Scholar Bowl program’s head coach, and James Allen is the assistant coach.
Next up is for the two Houston teams is a tournament Dec. 4 at Kickapoo.