By Shawn Hogendorf, Correspondent 

The Prior Lake High School Knowledge Bowl team exceeded expectations this year finishing second in the Division AA State Knowledge Bowl Tournament held at Cragun’s Resort in Brainerd April 17-18.

The team finished half a point behind the 2008 state champs, Eden Prairie High School.

If the team had answered one more question correctly in the last round, they would have won, according to team advisor Dave Panetti.

 “Our trip to state was great,” Panetti said. “Like any activity or sport, it’s always great to be among the top teams in the state. We most definitely fit that description. Our team had been almost unbeatable all season long, so we had high hopes going in.”

While the Knowledge Bowl team didn’t win every meet this year, they did finish in the top three in every meet and beat each team at least once over the course of the year, said junior Luke LoPresto of Prior Lake.

The state tournament began with a 60 question, multiple-choice written round where all five members of the team collaborate on the answers. The team finished the written round tied for first place with Minnesota Valley Lutheran High School.

The next day, the competition moved to the five oral rounds where students had 15 seconds to answer each of 45 questions covering the academic disciplines of history, geology, literature, grammar, earth science, politics, theater, math and much more.

In a Knowledge Bowl competition, each team competes against two other teams in each round. After the round is over, the team with the most correctly-answered questions earns the most points. In large tournaments, there is a “power ranking” score included. After each round the teams are re-ranked based on their new total score. The top teams compete in room 1, the next three teams in room 2 and so on.

The Lakers ranked in the top two the entire competition, remaining in room 1 throughout the tournament, LoPresto said. “It was intense the whole time, but it was pretty cool, too,” he added.

The Lakers went into the final round ahead of Eden Prairie High School by 11 points, but Eden Prairie outscored the Lakers by 12 points, to win by half a point. (The Lakers were awarded an extra half point for competing in the top room throughout the tournament.)

“This is the best season anyone here can remember,” LoPresto said.

After finishing sixth in the state tournament last year, the team’s emphasis was to work on their weakness, which was speed, LoPresto said. Yet, at state, the slowness helped on some questions, because other teams buzzed in before the question was read, giving the Lakers a chance to answer correctly, he said.

“Overall, we worked very well as a team,” LoPresto added. “Team captain Shaun Gosse and senior Mason Green are both very smart, but they took input from the rest of us in every round. The level of the competition at state is incredible, so that second place trophy means a lot to our team.”

Panetti said he is most proud of how gracious the team was even in the face of a very disappointing loss.

“I know we would have been equally gracious with a victory, which of course would have been sweeter; but we look at this loss as if it is a metaphorical brick wall which we have run up against,” Panetti said. “This brick wall is only there to show us how badly we want the victory next year.”

 Shawn Hogendorf can be reached at shogendorf@swpub.com.