By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

dobrien@dailynews.net

Thomas More Prep-Marian High School's state scholars bowl reign came to an end, for now.

TMP, winners of the Class 3A state title the past two years, came one place short of qualifying for state this year.

The Monarchs finished fourth at a 3A regional meet it hosted Thursday, when two other area teams took over the dominance of the meet TMP has won the past two years.

The top three teams from the four regional meets throughout the state advanced to the 3A state tourney next Saturday in Kingman.

Russell will be making its second straight state appearance -- it qualified in Class 4A last year -- after its championship performance Thursday. Norton finished second, and Minneapolis was third.

The Broncos snatched the regional title away from Norton by beating the Bluejays 80-70 in the last match of the finals round on a tiebreaker question. It was the only loss of the day for Norton and helped Russell avenge its only defeat earlier in the day -- a lop-sided 80-10 loss to the Bluejays in pool play.

"I think were so up after just beating Minneapolis that we had a really bad round against Norton," Russell coach Blaine Maier said of the Broncos' league rival.

It was the second exciting tourney finish in as many weeks for Russell, which won the North Central Activities Association League Tournament last week, beating Minneapolis on the last question at Minneapolis.

Like Russell, Norton will be making its second consecutive appearance at a state meet. The Bluejays finished fifth in 3A a year ago.

And for the first time in three years, TMP won't be heading to the season finale.

The Monarchs finished the season with a 58-16 overall record. Despite losing four seniors off last year's team -- including four-year starters Alex Becker and Tanner Younie, who posted a 257-37 career record -- TMP finished in the top four of all but one meet this season.

Included on that list were six championship performances, including a string of four team titles to begin the second semester when the Monarchs won 29 straight matches.

TMP started regionals with a close, 45-40 win over Lakin that ultimately was the win that got the Monarchs into the finals.

The Monarchs finished pool play with a 4-3 record to tie Lakin for the third and final spot in their pool to move on to the finals competition.

TMP won the tiebreaker by virtue of winning the head-to-head match with Lakin but couldn't capitalize in the finals, losing its first four matches before closing out the season with a win over Goodland.

"I'm not upset with our kids at all," TMP coach Don Hageman said. "We got into the finals, and to finish fourth at regionals after losing such quality from last year isn't all bad."

With so many veterans occupying the varsity chairs for the Monarchs the past few years, only one of this year's senior class got much varsity experience until this year.

Joining senior Kaleb Stark, a member of both state championship teams, in competing in their final meet Thursday were Brett Chrisler, Rhian Graver and Scott Heimann.

However, more underclassmen also got a significant amount of varsity experience this year, and Hageman said he is looking forward to next year with the return of a group that should be led by junior Ross Werth and sophomore Jacob Brull.

"We'll have a good group back, with some really good freshmen who will be sophomores next year," Hageman said. "We'll be OK ... looking forward to it."