Upper and Middle School Knowledge Master Teams Place 1st and 2nd

The Hawken Upper and Middle School Knowledge Master Teams won big earlier this month in the 2008 Knowledge Master Open Fall Tournament, with each team earning high rankings both state-wide and nationally. Held semi-annually in the spring and fall, the contest consists of 200 multiple choice questions from 15 different subject areas. Points are awarded based on the accuracy and speed of student responses, and there is a two-hour time limit. Collaboration among team members is encouraged, but assistance from coaches, calculators, or books is not permitted. Under the guidance of their coach, Pat Jewel, The Middle School Team joined forces on the Lyndhurst Campus on December 2nd to test their knowledge and skill against Middle School students across the state and around the globe. They finished with an impressive second place standing in the state, earning 1395 points in a field of 639 teams, where the average number of points earned per team was 1182. Out of 153 teams across the nation, the Hawken team placed 10th among Division II schools (those enrolling 201-500 students), answering 90% of the 200 questions correctly - most of them in under 30 seconds. Middle School team members include 8th graders Russell Cohen, Arthur Erlendsson, Justin Faulhaber, Sarah Foster, Martin Harrison, Alex Kaufman, and Jonathon Kumin; and 7th graders Shang-Shang Chen, Anna Du, Erica Fearon, Noah Geller, Mike Holstein, Alex Stotter, Julia Ullman, Abby Veres, and Sindhura Vallabhaneni. Just one day after the Middle School`s successful finish, a team of 22 Hawken Upper School students gathered in the Tech Center Computer Lab on the Gates Mills campus to compete in the high school tournament. Led by their coach, math teacher Stan Perry, The Hawken Upper School Knowledge Master Team was one of 695 high school teams world-wide to compete in this year`s fall tournament. In addition to placing 1st out of 27 teams in the state of Ohio, the Upper School team ranked 1st in the nation among 130 Division II schools (again, those with enrollments of 201-500 students) and 22nd in the world among the 695 high schools that participated. This is the second time in two years that Hawken Upper School`s Knowledge Master Team has captured the state championship, and in each of the last 5 contests, they have ranked in the top 5 nationally among Divison II schools. This year`s Upper School Knowledge Master Team included the following students: seniors John Borokhovich, Alex Ferris, Dylan Herts, Brian Huser, Jonathan Katzner, Alec Lai, Julia Langholt, Raj Mainthia, Samuel Milner, and Ben Sala; junior Omar Diab; sophomores Joclyn Adams, Margaret Erlendsdotthir, David Gerson, Hannah Kerman; and freshmen Miles Bloomenkranz, Ani Dasarathy, Aaron Ekstein, Mitch Krall, Jonathan Meckler, Adil Menon, and Eric Xiao.