Urbana’s academic team competed in their first match on Friday, January 5, 2018 at 6 PM. They have won the Academic Tournament three times and hope to bring victory this year. The tournament began thirty-seven years ago. The championship team receives a trophy which they can showcase at school for one year and then pass it on to the next champion school.

This year, there are nineteen students on the team. There is no limit to how many students can join but students have to be ready work hard to be able to play in the competitions. For the past few years Urbana has excelled in the mathematics category. There are five rounds in the competition and four students per school can compete per round.

Teammates enjoy being a part of the team because the community is so friendly and they enjoy the competition. One team member, Maya Narayanasamy, said she hopes to “crush skulls” this year at competition. Many of the kids on the team joined because they knew people on the team, or they were a part of Mathcounts or Geography Bee at Urbana Middle School. (To read the full story, see a January copy of the Hawkeye.)