Seven Ellinwood Chess players spent Saturday, March 15 competing at the State Chess Meet in Emporia at Emporia State University. For a second straight year, they finished second in class 1-2A. The aggravating news is that their efforts would have won Class 6A and 3A. Out of 25 teams at the State Meet, they were bested by only 5A Bishop Carrol with 17 points, 2A Thomas More Prep with 17 points, 4A Chanute HS with 16.5 points followed by the 2A Ellinwood Eagles with 16 points. That left Ellinwood as the fourth place team in Kansas of all the classifications, 1-6 A.
Each player plays six matches up to an hour apiece. A win is worth one point, a draw is a half a point while a loss merely leaves you scrambling mentally until your next match. Team scores are derived from the top four individual scores. As the tournament progresses, winners play winners and those who just lost play people in the same situation. By the 5th and 6th rounds, it gets very competitive, especially for those that haven’t lost a match. Ellinwood had one in this situation. As the tournament progresses the pressure only builds as team scores add up.
This year after the first two rounds, Ellinwood had a perfect score of 8 points and the top team score of all 25 teams. A rough third round had Ellinwood as the third best team in all classifications. Rounds 4 and 5 found them within a point of a Class 1-2A Championship and the #1 team overall. After the 6th and final round Ellinwood was a mere point or one win behind what was to be the best team in the state, Bishop Carooll of Wichita, and a half point behind Thomas More Prep for 2nd place in Class 1-2A and fourth overall.
Erik Grose, a foreign exchange student from Germany, who just happened to have played the game a bit before coming to the U.S., had lost only two matches after two meets this year. At the State Meet meet he finished with 5 wins and 1 draw. Tying for 1st place out of 150+ competitors in the K-12 division. After tie breakers, based upon strength of opponents (based upon computer generated matchups) he finished 3rd overall with 5.5 points.
Bryce Steffan finished with 4 wins and 2 losses for 4 points and a 26th place finish. Banks Jacobs finished with three wins and a draw for 3.5 points to place 47th. Trace Tudor finished with 3 wins; Cooper Gunn finished with 2 wins and a draw; Kellen Behnke finished with 2 wins and a draw; and Nathan Hammeke finished with 2 wins.
