Bellevue East teams sweep Nebraska Economic Challenge titles

Teams from Bellevue East High School won championships in the Nebraska Economics Challenge March 25 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Students, divided into two divisions, competed in four rounds. The first three rounds consisted of an assessment of their knowledge of topics related to macroeconomics (the study of the economy as a whole), microeconomics (the study of the economic behavior of individuals, businesses and industries) and international economics. They individually answered multiple-choice questions and a team score was comprised of the top three individual scores.

In the Adam Smith Division, the Bellevue East Orange team of Patrick Curington, Ryan Splichal, Henry Timmins and Katie Waite defeated a team from Millard North in the quiz bowl-format final. The Millard North team included Mohit Jain, Jai Mediratta, Jeeva Venkataraman and Xiong-fei Zhang, and teacher Aaron Bearinger.

In the David Ricardo Division, the Bellevue East Gold team of Roosevelt Boyland, Morgan Goldsberry, Helen Timmins and Scott Walker defeated a team from Elkhorn in the final. PK Simmons was the teacher coaching both Bellevue East teams. The Elkhorn team included Katie Brockemier, Thomas Faulkner and Ryan Smelser, and teacher Nick Jarzynka.

Bellevue East Gold advances to an online national competition April 28 with $1,500 in prize money at stake. Bellevue East Orange advances to the national semifinal competition. The top six teams from the national semifinals move on to the National Economics Challenge in New York City in May.

Twenty teams from 12 Nebraska high schools competed in this year's Nebraska Economics Challenge. The event tested teams of high school students on their knowledge of our economy. Other participating schools included Cedar Rapids, Humboldt-Table Rock-Steinauer, Lincoln Northeast, Norris, Omaha Central, Twin River, Southwest Consolidated and Waverly.

Following the first three rounds, the highest two team scores in each division advanced to the final round where they orally answered questions using a quiz-bowl format.

The event is sponsored by the Nebraska Council on Economic Education, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the economic literacy of Nebraska's students. This goal is achieved primarily through economic education programs, courses and workshops for educators across the state. The Nebraska Economics Challenge will again be offered to all Nebraska economics teachers and their students next year.

Other participating Adam Smith Division teams included:

* Bellevue East Blue (Brianna Boehne, Sam Ervin, Justin McCully and Victoria Trojanowski; Simmons, teacher);
* Bellevue East Green (Hannah Altman, Alexander Campbell, Angela Wayt; Simmons, teacher);
* Lincoln Northeast Berkshire A's (Kurt Berchtold, Alicai Bucci, Kyle Kettler and Tanner Pfeiffer; Carol Mathias, teacher);
* Omaha Central 1 (Ryan Goding, Emma Lacroix and Song Zheng; Vicki Deniston-Reed, teacher);
* Omaha Central 2 (Fan BinZheng, Matt Bowden, Leo Bravo and Adam Lacroix; Deniston-Reed, teacher);
* Omaha Central 3 (Maureen Kalkowski, Marika Svolos and Giselle Tran; Deniston-Reed, teacher);
* Omaha Central 5 (Hal Emas, Clayton Reynolds, Ryan Wood and Avery Zaleski; Deniston-Reed, teacher);
* Waverly (Emily Brumond, Brian Richard, Brad Schueler and Karl Woerth; Bret Harpster, teacher).

Other participating David Ricardo Division teams included:

* Cedar Rapids (Kelsey Martinsen, Katie Rutten, Ashley VanDeWall and Christy Zentner; Brandon Detelfsen, teacher);
* Humboldt-Table Rock-Steinauer (Carmen Alexander, Jesse Anderson, Tony Knudson and Breanna Lukehart; Joan Dreier, teacher);
* Lincoln Northeast Little Mathiases (Wyatt Beck, Morgan Krause. Samantha Shrewsbury and Brendan Wissink; Mathias teacher);
* Lincoln Northeast Little Morebucks (Colton Atteberry, Katie Duff, Tuan Nguyen and Sean Tomes; Mathias, teacher);
* Millard North Stallions (Akansha Jain, Nimansha Jain, Cole Wilhelmi; Bearinger, teacher);
* Norris (Dani Edwards, Matt Gutzmer and Drew Hoefler; Sid Conrad, teacher);
* Southwest (Danielle Blume, Amber Daffer, Kassidy McConville and Madison Mousel; Connie Barger, teacher);
* Twin River (Kelsey Cherry, Brennan Christman, Kylee Gee and Alex Mohr; Ryan Sidwell, teacher).

WRITER: Jennifer Davidson