The varsity Scholars Bowl team has been practicing since September. Their hard work was put to the test Nov. 1 at Independent, the team’s first meet.

“Of course we were excited,” senior Alaina O’Neill said. “The first meet of the year is always exciting.”

The team consisted of seniors Chloe Henderson, Jessica Mies, Alaina O’Neill, and Dennis Zoglmann and juniors Makenna Beesley and Courtnee Wisdom. They competed against Collegiate, North East Magnet, Hesston, Andover and East High.

The team thought they had ended the night with their 3-2 record and a third place finish in pool play, but the team that was supposed to move forward left early thinking they were done for the night. This allowed the varsity team to move on to quarterfinals.

“It was really funny to hear,” Henderson said. “We weren’t supposed to move on, but [the other team] left, so we kind of just got to move on by default.”

However, after this exciting news, the team ended the night after losing in the quarterfinals to Maize, leaving them with a record of 3-3. Zoglmann was the top scorer for the Cardinals with 170 points, and Beesley and Mies followed with 40 points each as the second highest scorers of the night.

“We didn’t do too bad for the first meet,” Zoglmann said. “Especially since for most of the team, it was their first varsity meet as well.”