12-year-old ties for 1st in ESPN bracket challenge

HAWTHORNWOODS,ILL.>> A sixth-grade boy from suburban Chicago completed a near-perfect bracket predicting the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, finishing in a tie for first in ESPN’s massive annual contest.

Sam Holtz said ESPN officials told him Tuesday that is he ineligible to claim the top prize — a $20,000 gift card — because he’s 12 years old. ESPN requires participants to be at least 18 and he was told he will get a goody bag from the cable network instead.

“I’m irritated,” Holtz told the Daily Herald. “Yes, I’m still proud of my accomplishment, but I’m not happy with the decision.”

The tournament includes 67 games and Holtz missed only six. He was perfect picking games played in the Sweet 16, Elite Eight and Final Four. Out of 11.5 million who entered a bracket on ESPN’s website, Sam finished tied for first with 1,830 points after Duke beat Wisconsin 68-63 in Monday’s championship game. He entered 10 brackets in the contest.

“There is no secret,” said Holtz, who attends Lake Zurich Middle School North. “There was some luck, and I studied ESPN. com. I just picked the teams that I felt had the best players.”

His mother, Elizabeth, kept him home from school Tuesday.

“He wanted to go to school today, but I kept him home because ESPN said they planned to call this morning,” she said. “He wants to go this afternoon, but I told him if Jimmy Kimmel calls, he’s going to have to miss that too.”