You are here
Home ›Fueled by Kansas, Annabelle Dibert wins The Standard’s 2022 Bracket Challenge
The 2022 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has come to an end after Kansas was crowned this year’s NCAA Champion with a 72-69 win over North Carolina Monday, April 4. With that final game determining this year’s tournament champion, the same can be said for The Standard’s Bracket Challenge, as, much like Kansas in the NCAA Tournament field, Annabelle Dibert of Lansing emerged atop this year’s collection of entries as the Bracket Challenge champion.
Standing just two points apart heading into Monday night’s championship game, Dibert and Stan Johnson of Holly Hill, FL were two of just six entries who had some combination of three teams remaining out of this year’s final four teams in the tournament, with no entries picking all four teams correctly.
Johnson was the only entry to pick both North Carolina and Kansas to play in this year’s NCAA Championship game and the only entry to pick the Tar Heels to win this year’s NCAA crown, with just one other entry even picking North Carolina to play in the championship game but to finish runner-up with Auburn as champion.
Dibert was one of 11 entries to pick Kansas to win it all, the fifth most popular pick among this year’s Challenge entries. None of those other entries banking on Kansas had North Carolina anywhere within their final four teams, much less to play in the championship game, with 16 entries selecting Kansas to finish as this season’s NCAA Runner-Up.
The top 26 entries in the Challenge’s final standings played out as follows:
Annabelle Dibert 133
Kristi Campbell 128
Chase Adam 127
John Reinke 127
Keira McCormick 123
Diane Piittmann 114
Gene Praska 110
Derek Wicks 107
Brandt Gibbs 103
Stan Johnson 103
Charlie Jepsen 101
Nathan Hershberger 95
Pat Stilwell 87
Scott Dougherty 86
Grady Goetzinger 85
Tate Ellingson 83
Betty Jepsen 80
Gary Gress 78
Morgan Weymiller 77
Dalton Dibert 76
Verland Lenth 75
Mike Kramer 74
Iris Schulte 74
Caity Schultz 74
Charlene Baxter 73
Lynn Folsom 73
The top choices from this season’s Bracket Challenge entries to win this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship included Gonzaga (30% of all entries), Arizona (22%), Iowa (10%), Kentucky (8%), Kansas (6%) and Auburn (5%). Much appreciation goes out to all those who submitted entries in this season’s Bracket Challenge, as well as to the sponsors who made this season’s Bracket Challenge possible.