Kingsmen Emerge from Brutal Field to Take State

In perhaps the most contested state championship ever, sixteen evenly matched teams did battle at Hamilton Heights HS on Saturday, April 17th. For only the second time in the eight-year history, a team with a loss ended up winning. Congratulations to Penn HS for winning the title; it is their second, having won it all back in 1999.

In Round 1, Hobart announced themselves the early favorite when the Duneland Conference champs nearly reached the 500-point plateau against Brownsburg. Of the other league champions, only White River winner Brebeuf Jesuit was a winner, as Huntington North (Quad County), Penn (St. Joseph Valley), and Yorktown (Skill Bowl) all fell.

The best game in Round 2 was Monrovia versus Marion, which went down to the wire and was won by the former, 205-200. Hobart maintained first place by scoring 410 points, but four other teams were also undefeated.

Round 3 was like an episode of "The Twilight Zone". Hamilton Southeastern stopped Hobart by a hundred points. Penn knocked Southport from the ranks of the unbeaten, and Elkhart Central did the same to Perry Meridian. That meant there would be only one 3-0 team, from the battle between last year's state champion Lafayette Harrison and three-time state runnerup Saint Joseph's. When the bell sounded on that one, it was St. Joe who had prevailed by 60 points.

Heading into the playoffs, then, St. Joseph's had the large target on its back, and high-scoring Hobart had the #2 seed. Contrasting greatly with last year, when a 1-2 team made it into the playoffs, this year two 2-1 teams ended up getting shut out.

For the second consecutive year, three St. Joseph Valley teams were in one half of the draw. This was a bad omen for St. Joseph's, which had finished third among those three in their league tournament, but they did beat Elkhart Central before falling to Penn in the semifinals. In the other half of the draw, Hobart had to exorcise Round 3 demons by reversing their earlier loss to Hamilton Southeastern, then they eked out a win over Harrison to get to the final. The final game was nip-and-tuck, with Hobart and Penn tied with three questions left in the last round, when Penn finally took control to win.

A few side notes: Hamilton Southeastern can claim some bragging rights, having beaten both champ Penn and runnerup Hobart in the preliminary rounds. And, unfortunately, because of an error in the Excel scoresheet, Brebeuf (who later excelled at Nationals) should have been included in the playoffs.