John Bapst’s Chess team walked away from the Maine Scholastic Team Chess Championships with multiple successes, high honors and championship trophies.
In the Novice section, Tyler McGoldrick, Khanye Cogdell, John Hoang, Hayden O’Connell, Elliott Collins, and Aodhan Higgins led the Bapst Novice team to a third-place team finish;
In the Reserve section, the team captained by Minh Nguyen and Leo Wlodkowski also won a third-place finish. Their team was rounded out with good play from Porter Hubbard, Tony Huang, Sam Lee, and Edward Wu.
the team captained by Minh Nguyen and Leo Wlodkowski also won a third-place finish. Their team was rounded out with good play from Porter Hubbard, Tony Huang, Sam Lee, and Edward Wu.
Finally,the Championship section! Championship play is a pressure-cooker, five-on-five, four round match environment. This year, twelve teams including Bapst played for the State title. At the end of the day, Bapst performed with a perfect 3-0 in match play, facing off against a chess dynasty: Cheverus High School. Bapst won two, lost two, and drew one in a close, hard-fought match. On paper, this means John Bapst and Cheverus share the State Championship. On tiebreaks, Bapst took home first place and the title of High School Team Champions!
Congratulations to Benjamin Mock (captain), Prince Wang, Kenneth Park, Joshua Batstone, and Devon Hunter! In particular, Ben and Josh turned in stellar performances with perfect 4/4 records.
Last, since Bapst shared the State Championship with Cheverus High School on paper, Bapst also shared the George Cunningham Trophy, which last saw the halls of Bapst in 2008. Logistically, Cheverus High School will hold the trophy half of the year, and Bapst will hold it half the year.