The Dunbar Academic Team, led by special education teacher Ms. Susan Magedanz, recently placed first among other high schools in The Governor’s Cup at the Galt House in Louisville, Kentucky. The final score revealed that they placed fourth in problem-solving and they were a quarterfinalist in the quick-recall contest. The team is now headed to Internationals, which will be in June at Indiana University.

The team has back-to-back wins at state as well as three wins out of the past four years that have they competed.

The team was led by senior Vania Ma, junior Valerie Sarge and junior Athena Kern. Ma placed fifth in language arts and sixth in math. Sarge brought in a first place for the team in science and then a second in math. Kern placed seventh in arts and humanities.

The team had already beat most of their competition in district and regionals, excluding Tates Creek High School, who will also be joining them at internationals.  Their main completion was Jessamine County.

Dunbar has only ever had three academic coaches in its history: Spanish teacher Mr. Chuck Dean, Social Studies teacher Mr. John Darnell and special education teacher Ms. Susan Magedanz. Mr. Dean, who retired from Dunbar, had over 1,000 wins in his time as a coach. Mr. Darnell also has a couple of state wins under his belt. He and Magedanz co-sponsored the team last year, so this is Ms. Magedanz’s first year of being the coach solo.

The Future Problem Solving Team also had a win at the Galt House. The main competitors on this team were senior Jessie Li, senior Maria Wang and junior Alice Liu.

“We did pretty well at Governor’s Cup [this year], but I think we can do much better next year,” said junior Valerie Sarge.

Three of the four girls who led the team this year will be seniors next year, which allows them to gain more knowledge and experience. They are also preparing for the International competition and hoping that they can do well there.