New Ulm High School’s Knowledge Bowl Purple Team - (L-R): Sophie Berger, Henry Albrect, Ryan Martinka, Benton Groebner, and Cullen Slette.

NEW ULM — After taking first, second, and third the last two seasons at the State AA Knowledge Bowl meet held at Cragun’s Resort in Brainard, the New Ulm High School Purple Knowledge Bowl team was reclassified into AAA for the state tournament, where they were one of the smaller schools competing.

The Purple team, led by seniors Benton Groeber and Cullen Slette, overcame a slow start following their written round on Thursday night to spring into room one after the second oral round, where they spent the rest of the day competing head-to-head with the eventual state champion Edina.

Edina’s team was the defending AAA State champion, and New Ulm Purple was the defending AA State Champion from last year. New Ulm Purple proved they could compete with the larger schools and placed second with 108.5 points.

The final places were Edina (143.5), New Ulm (108.5), Sartell-St. Stephen (106), Benilde-St. Margarets, and Chaska (105). This is the twelfth year since 2007 that NUHS has sent one or more teams to a state tournament where they have placed as high as 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, and 7th.