Students from Great Bend’s Central Kansas Christian Academy brought home several awards from the annual Midwinter tournament in Jan. 18 Garden City. The tournament is hosted by High Plains Home Educators out of Garden City and many Christian schools and home school associations participate each year. Although this was CKCA’s first trip, it was a productive one.
First year Principal Ed Johnson and three staff members took 34 of the schools’ best and brightest students to represent their school along with many valuable and appreciated parent volunteers. “It was an opportunity for a lot of fun as well as an opportunity to see how our kiddos stack up with students in similar school settings,” Johnson said.
 CKCA has several home schooled students who attend CKCA for their music, band, art, and computer programs as well as over 100 full time students in grades K-9., The students participated as individuals in spelling, geography, Bible, chess, checkers, and cup stacking. They also participated in the “Pace Bowl,” which is a team competition in which they answer questions in math, science and language arts as well as Bible, geography, and spelling. The Pace Bowl uses a Scholars Bowl format where students must click in using a buzzer. The competition is offered for students from first grade through 12th grade. CKCA presently offers kindergarten through ninth grade, but expect to add 10th grade next year.
Those students who earned honors were:

First grade, Murphy Woodmanse – third in Bible and third in Pace Bowl
Acacia Ambruster – third in Bible and third in Pace Bowl
Makayla Burton – second and third in cup stacking, third in Pace Bowl
Judson Sandell – third in Pace Bowl

Second grade, Addie Guthrie – third in Bible

Third grade
Tessa Fry – first in Bible, second in spelling, third in Pace Bowl
Breann Allen – third in pace bowl
Johnathan Randall – third in geography, third in Pace Bowl
Paige Wagner – third in Pace bowl

Fourth grade
Mollie Phillips – second in Pace Bowl, third in spelling
Ruthie Williams – first in Bible, second in chess and Pace Bowl
Jaci Guthrie – second in Bible, spelling, and Pace Bowl
Isabella DeTello – second in checkers and Pace Bowl

Fifth grade
Kaeden Amerine – first in Pace Bowl, second in checkers, third in spelling
Collin Hammond – first in Pace Bowl and geography, second in chess, third in spelling
Evan Hammond – first in Pace Bowl, second in Bible and cup stacking, third in spelling
Christopher Schenk – first in Pace Bowl, Bible, spelling and checkers, second in geography

Sixth grade, Matt Zorn – second in Pace Bowl
McKayla Williams - first in geography, second in Pace Bowl
Matt Phillips - first in chess, second in Pace Bowl and third in Bible
Malachi Williams – second in Pace Bowl

Seventh grade
Shelby Henkle – second in Bible and Pace Bowl
Abby MacKinney- first in Bible and spelling, second in Pace Bowl
Kassidy Harms- second in Pace Bowl

Eighth grade
Phane Pedigo – second in chess and Pace Bowl, third in geography
Sean Williams – second place in spelling and Pace Bowl, third in chess
Corey Harbaugh – second in Pace Bowl
Elsi Miller – second in checkers and Pace Bowl, third in spelling

Ninth grade
Emily Hammond- second in spelling and cup stacking,