McNary Heights Elementary School had its final Battle of the Books battle on March 3rd. It all came down to two teams after six weeks of competition involving over 160 students on 34 teams.
The final battle was between the 5th-grade team, McNary USA, and the 4th-grade team, The Monkeys. The battle took place in the gym with parents, staff, and MHES’s 3rd through 5th-grade students in the audience.
Heading into the battle, team McNary USA had one loss, and The Monkeys had zero. Both teams were nervous but ready to compete.
Round one started with the “in which book questions.” The Monkeys answered the odd questions, and McNary USA answered the even. For each question, teams were given 20 seconds to name the book and author content occurred from. In the next round, the teams answered “content” questions. They were asked specific questions from the books. After the end of this round, the score was 8-10. Team McNary USA had won, but the competition was not over yet.
Battle of the Books is a double-elimination competition, meaning a team needs to lose twice to be eliminated. Heading into this final battle, The Monkeys were undefeated; they now had one loss. Another battle was to be played.
The teams quickly switched who was answering first, with The Monkeys now answering the even questions and McNary USA answering the odd. They again started round one with the “in which book” questions and then moved to round two answering the “content” questions.
The stakes were much higher in this match. Either team risked elimination now. The teams answered questions back and forth and carefully thought through their answers. At the end of the final round, the score was 5-3. McNary USA were the winners, and McNary Heights Battle of the Books Champions.
At the end of the competition, the teams stood together and were awarded medals and scholastic gift certificates. First place received a $20 certificate, and second place a $15 certificate. The third-place team, Anime Squad, was also called up and received medals and a $10 certificate.
McNary USA said they were “surprised” that they won because heading into the final battle, they had one loss while The Monkeys were undefeated. They knew they would have to win twice in a row and didn’t know if they could because The Monkeys “were a good team.”
McNary USA will be heading to the regional Battle of the Books competition March 18th to compete for a chance to go to the State competition.
McNary’s Winners:
First Place, McNary USA: Allison Lopez, Genesis Cortes, Mareli Ramirez-Garcia, Berta Diaz Barriga, and Heidi Serrano-Coria (alt)
Second Place, The Monkeys: Levi Williams, Blake Morris, Isaiah Ford, Jaylah Nunez, Jose Jauregui Rodriguez (alt)
Third Place, Anime Squad: Theta Trujillo, Blake Greenhalgh, Serena Carrillo, Fidel Miranda
