Fifth Grade Trio Finishes 3rd in the Country!

Fifth grade students Theo Grieb, Aarav Mago and James Maschmeyer recently finished 3rd in the country in the National Academic Bowl National Championship, a competition run by International Academic Competitions. IAC also runs the International History Olympiad and National History Bee, which Grieb competed in and won last year. Friends he made there encouraged him to form an academic bowl team at his school this year. 

Since students can only start participating on Parker’s Academic Bowl team in 6th grade, Grieb recruited Mago and Maschmeyer to join him in forming their own unofficial Parker team that would managed by their moms and not affiliated with the school.

This past November, the unofficial Parker academic bowl team won the IAC Illinois Academic Bowl State Regionals at Daniel Wright Elementary School. By going undefeated, including against 7th grade teams, the boys’ score qualified them as one of the top seeds for Nationals. 

Nationals are extremely competitive and require not only academic knowledge but gameplay strategy, buzzer skills and experience. Additional tournaments are an essential part of preparing at a high level, but because the boys were not on the official school team, they faced one major obstacle—they were not eligible to compete in NAQT, the only other major organization that runs quiz bowl competitions for students their age throughout the school year.

To make up for this dilemma, moms Tanvi (Aarav), Erika (James) and Cari (Theo) hosted quiz bowl practices on occasional weekends. Cari purchased a buzzer system so the boys could practice their buzzer speed and team chemistry. They also took field trips to the Art Institute of Chicago to take in the art exhibits and enjoy snacks from the cafeteria.

From May 21 through 25, the triad competed at IAC Academic Bowl Nationals, where more than 30 schools sent teams. After the first day of competition, the boys clinched a 12th place playoff berth (only 16 teams qualify for the academic bowl playoffs). Still, the boys knew the road ahead would be challenging. In the octofinals, they faced the 4th seeded team that was one of the top NAQT schools in the country. Against all odds, the boys won. And they continued to win.

The unofficial Parker 5th grade academic bowl team finished in third place in the country.

This took an entire Parker community effort—from the boys who studied science, humanities, literature, geography, history, mythology, religion, math and pop culture in their free time, to the working moms who served as coaches, to the many Parker friends who cheered for the boys throughout the entire school year. Special thanks to teachers Mike McPharlin, Jeff Stone and Scott Turner for supporting all three boys and working with them to balance schoolwork and the weeklong competition.

These moms are all proud of their boys, but are excited for Parker to take over academic bowl coaching in the fall.