March Madness brought more excitement and competition to Powell Middle School this year, as student Mae Gilliatt chose correctly and saw herself and the UConn Huskies win it all in the sixth grade physical education class’s bracket competition.

“I don’t watch college basketball, I don’t necessarily like college basketball. I did it because I like competitions,” Gilliatt said. “I liked it because of the name and I liked the mascot. Everyone was like ‘UConn was definitely going to win it’ so I thought about it and looked at the stats and said ‘OK yeah I’ll put that down.’”

The Huskies completed a perfect run to a second straight national championship, winning by an average margin of 23.3 points and continuing to set records for most consecutive tournament games won by double digits which currently stands at 12.

In a close competition, Gilliatt felt there were other classmates who could have won, but she was able to pull it out after picking two of the Final Four teams in UConn and Purdue as well as 13 of the Sweet 16 teams.

“The people who didn’t win could’ve won because they’re massive fans. I thought it was pretty cool. My dad (David) was like, ‘no, there’s no way, we don’t watch college basketball,’” she said.

After filling out the bracket, Gilliatt said she and her family started watching some games, sparking a little more interest in basketball, while also bringing some of her enthusiasm from her time on the Cub cheer team to the games.

“It’s fun to cheer while I’m watching games,” Gilliatt said. “I was getting ready to watch lots of games, I was involved and excited for it (the tournament). I’m really busy but whenever someone was talking about it at school I asked them what happened if I didn’t catch that game.”

Her reward for winning the tournament? 

A championship T-shirt bought for her by the PE teachers at Powell Middle School.

“I thought it was going to be some lousy, cardboard shirt, but it was cool,” Gilliatt said.