We are thrilled to celebrate our Upper School Scholars Bowl team as they bring home another State Championship. This team helped to carry on the impressive legacy of the Collegiate Scholars Bowl program by securing the ninth title in a row for our team. While we are currently experiencing quite the run of success, it is part of a much larger legacy, having won 21 State titles since the program was started.
The team is coached by Pete DeVries and Julianne London and was comprised of four juniors, Ethan MacKenzie, Hayan Raffi, Ajitesh Srivastava, and Cooper Winters, and led by seniors Shouvik Dev and Hannah Ternes.This year’s title completed Ternes’ perfect run of four titles in a row. The team had an impressive season, taking first place in eight tournaments including the Tournament of Champions, and going undefeated through the regional and the state tournaments.
When asked about this year’s team, head coach Peter DeVries said, "What sets this group apart is their capacity to accept coaching and to maintain self-discipline at the playing table. When you get a group that will set aside their egos, accept direction, and try things a new way–well, then you end up with a group that doesn't hit a ceiling, because you can always get a little better. And, so much of that is directly due to our senior captain Hannah Ternes; for the last four years, she has modeled coachability and poise. It's hard to fully express how thankful I am for Hannah and her teammates."
The team made it through the state tournament with a perfect 10-0 record, scoring an average of 87 pts to the opposition’s average of 20.5. In addition to that, the team correctly interrupted 37 times during 43 attempts. We were led in scoring by junior Ethan MacKenzie, who finished with 440 points. There were many exciting rounds throughout the day, but Coach DeVries reflected on one particular round against Girard, saying, “Coach Webster's group had it tied up going into the last question. We were very fortunate that Hannah Ternes was able to get in first on the buzzers and give us those last ten points to sneak by a well-coached Girard team."
In the last round of finals against Southeast of Saline, the competition was still up for grabs. Collegiate found themselves going against the “home team” who was coming in with a 4-0 record and a solid win. It didn’t help that this was a rematch of last year’s 1 vs 2. Coach DeVries said, “The energy was just on a different level. SES jumped out to a quick lead before Hannah grabbed an interruption on question 4 and Hayan added another quick 20. After that, we were able to maintain and extend the lead, winning the round and–ultimately–the state championship."
We could not be more proud of this impressive group of Spartans. Assistant coach Julianne London was quick to point out the specialness of this team. When asked what makes them stand out to her, she shared, "What makes this team special is how invested they are in each other. They are so trusting and supportive of each other that it makes it much easier to adapt in the middle of a tough round and re-center their focus when needed." All of their hard work paid off, and this special team made their mark in the Collegiate history books.