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.