The Osborne Junior High 7 th Grade team continued their streak of bringing home medals to three at the Hill City Scholars Bowl competition. The streak will come to an end this year as that was the last meet of the 2024 season. After earning gold and silver medals the prior two events the team earned a bronze against teams primarily made up of the MCL schools. The team did not start well nor end well as the losses came at the bookends of the competition, however, the middle five round wins proved to be enough to secure third place. The scores were as follows: OJH 50 – Smith Center 60, OJH 80 –Phillipsburg 20, OJH 40 – Hill City 30, OJH 70 – Palco 10, OJH 70 – Ellis 10, OJH 70 – Plainville 40, OJH 40 –Norton 50, OJH 40 – Trego 80. Trego won the competition followed by Norton. Individual scoring once again found Stormy Guttery leading the way with 280 points. The scoring was fairly even among her fellow teammates with Kassidy Heller, Kimber Barfield, and Lainey Kendig adding 20 points each and Hallie Mick and Libbie Carlin contributing 10 points each.
The 8 th Grade team left Hill City feeling dejected as they competed well yet were not announced at the medal ceremony. However, the next morning found an email from Hill City which found a mistake in the final scoring and the OJH 8 th graders actually finished better than previously indicated. The reason for the conundrum was a four-way tie between Osborne, Norton, Plainville and Ellis. After the teams had departed from the campus the Hill City staff found the error in breaking the tie. Osborne had defeated each of the teams involved in the tie so by virtue of head to head competition the Bullpups finished in second place. The final results left Hill City in first place, OJH as mentioned in second place and Norton in third. The results for each round were as follows: OJH 50 – Smith Center 70, OJH 60 – Phillipsburg 40, OJH 20 – Hill City 60, OJH 60 – Palco 10, OJH 70 – Ellis 40, OJH 80 – Plainville 40, OJH 50 – Norton 30, OJH 40 – Trego 70. Josh Choate and Olivia Mans led the way in individual scoring with 150 and 120 points respectively. Teammates adding a fair amount of points were Klaire Eilert with 90 points and Deecon Dill with 70 points. Peyton Clark, Taryn Ellenz, Chloe Hougaard, and Gentrie Riner also participated in the final competition of the season.
Both teams represented Osborne very well during the five competitions this 2024 season. The eighth grade team will add fresh minds to the high school team next year while the seventh grade team will look to add to their success as eighth graders next season. Thank you to the parents who came and supported the students, it is very much appreciated. Also, a special thanks to Beth for getting us to and from each competition safely, especially dealing with the high winds on our trip to Hill City.