By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

dobrien@dailynews.net

Hays High School completed its most successful scholars bowl season in several years Thursday, finishing one spot of qualifying for state with its fifth-place finish at a tough Class 5A regional tournament in Salina.

The top four teams from the two 5A regional meets qualified for the state tourney next Saturday at Stilwell-Blue Valley in the Kansas City area.

The Indians gave some perennial heavyweights a scare along the way at regionals.

HHS won its pool with a perfect 5-0 record, beating last year's runner-up, Kapaun-Mount Carmel from Wichita, as well as Wichita's Bishop Carroll, which finished 2-3 in that pool.

However, both those teams were able to defeat the Indians in the finals round, where they went 1-4 and came up one place short of advancing to state.

"The kids were beating themselves up at first," HHS coach Cheryl Shepherd-Adams said of the finals. "They just needed reminding of how far they've come."

Hays High, which in the recent past didn't even have enough students participating in scholars bowl to send a team to meets, this year closed out the regular season with two runner-up team finishes -- at Ellis and Norton, finishing second to strong 3A programs in both those meets.

Competing in their final scholars bowl meet for Hays High at regionals were seniors Xan Faber, Jessalyn Allen and Hayden Phlieger.

Bishop Carroll won the regional team title, followed by Winfield, Kapaun and Winfield.