Shoreview 3rd Grader Picked A Top NCAA Bracket
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - One of the top finishers in WCCO's online NCAA tournament bracket challenge is a third grader.
Riley Nelson is in third grade in Mrs. Brooks' class at Turtle Lake Elementary in Shoreview.
He picked Duke to beat Wisconsin in the championship, which, of course, is exactly what happened.
Out of 24,000 brackets submitted to WCCO and our sister CBS stations across the country, Nelson tied for 15th place. And he took seventh place in the local WCCO bracket challenge:
Nelson, whose username is "Big Cheese," said no one actually calls him that; he just thought it would be a funny bracket name.
He said his dad is a Duke fan, so he picked them to win.
"I knew I was going to pick Duke, because that's my family thing, but I didn't care about winning a bracket," he said. "I just picked who I like, like Arizona and Wisconsin, but then my teams just kept winning, and now I'm really excited that I 'killed' everyone in the brackets, including my mom and dad."
Nelson's father, John, said he's impressed with his son's bracket.