Eighteen elementary students from Oxford and Clear Lake Elementary schools and Oxford Middle School ranging from third to sixth grade attended the Academic Games State Tournament in Grand Rapids held March 5-7, which challenges students in math, langauge arts and social studies.
‘Since it was such a terrible winter in Michigan this year we went with a winter theme,? said Coach Connie Ginste.
Oxford’s minor level teams, which are comprised of third and fourth graders did very well at the competition,? according to Ginste.
Team ‘Ice Cubes:? Andrew Haselton, Michael Brown, Dakota Streeter, Faith Diegel, and Michael Duong took home the state championship after getting medals in every game including one bronze, one silver and three gold.
Despite ‘Ice Cubes? winning the state championship, only upper level (Adventurous teams) qualify for national competition,? Ginste noted.
Team ‘Frost Byte:? Keaton Linn, Donavin McAfee, Dale Schmalenberg, Logan Shafer and Owen Avey received two silver medals.
Also, Alexsandra Foster who played on a combination team ‘Veto Power? recieved a second place medal.
‘Clear Lake Elementary also joined Academic Games for the first time this year, so we had players from Clear Lake on both ‘Ice Cubes? and ‘Frost Byte,? Ginste said. ‘Next year Clear Lake will have their own team and practices at their school.?
Oxford’s Adventurous Teams, which are comprised of fifth and six graders’Deep Freeze:? Gargi Ramekar, Jack Linn, Jack Butzu, Abby Cherian, Collin Trevino received four bronze medals and was one of 13 teams in four districts in Michigan that qualified for nationals in Knoxville Tennessee April 25.
Oxford also had two players, Dylan Patel and Gavin Shampine, receive bronze medals who competed with St. Lawrence, a private school from Utica called on a minor team called ‘Storm Warning.?
‘The three days of competition is very grueling. Players get up at 6:30 a.m.for breakfast, begin competing at 7 a.m. and competed until 9 p.m. with only breaks for meals and their enthusiasm keeping them going. They did amazing,? Ginste said. ‘I think the boys and girls have brought quite a bit of recognition to Oxford and they represented themselves very well, made a lot of friends and learned a lot.?