Months of reading, teamwork and friendly competition, all led to one exciting evening.

The Book Bananas, a team from Palermo Elementary, reigned supreme in what was a very tight contest between six teams, two from each of the district’s elementary schools. The winning team of Henry Huber, Mason Hoxie and Maggie McWilliams advanced to the county-wide battle at SUNY Oswego on March 16.

Schools held their local battles the week prior to determine the six teams competing at the district level out of more than 15 teams that read eight books, and memorized their titles and authors. They then took part in a 16-question quiz where they were tasked with remembering which book each question is referring to. Multiple school battles were tight and required tiebreakers to complete.

At Mexico Elementary, Shadow Readers took first place in their school battle. Team members Thomas Greer, Holden Bryant and Phinley Shaffer earned the top spot with a confident performance. Finishing a very close second after an impressive tiebreaker was Lightning Bolt Readers 2.0, made up of Beckett Weber, Osceola Bassette and Isla Rose.

At Palermo Elementary, the competition also came down to a tiebreaker. The Book Bananas captured first place followed by The Book Champions in second, represented by Andria Clark and Zane Hunter.

New Haven Elementary will be represented by its first-place team, The Wild Readers, featuring Vivian Larrabee, Mckenzie Pitsley, Brooklyn Clark and Kevin Miller. The second-place team, The Wild Animals includes Cheyenne Duschen and Marshall Willson, who also delivered a strong showing in their building competition.

The winning team at the district battle will move on to the countywide competition at SUNY Oswego later in March.

To view photos of each team and some action shots, visit Facebook.com/MACSpride.