Charles Crane/MDN Minot High Senior Lydia Repnow holds the giant baseball card made of her after placing second in the nation for the 2022 FANschool Election game last fall.

Predicting and prognosticating on the outcomes of our democratic process is a big business in our country, but often the process resembles alchemy more than an exactly science. But one student from Minot High School was able to accurately divine the tea leaves of last fall’s midterm elections, and put herself and her school on the national map.

FANschool, a website and educational platform, networks and organizes March Madness-style prediction contests for students. While the big draw certainly is the nationwide general elections, Minot High Senior Lydia Repnow correctly guessed the outcomes of the 35 U.S. Senate races last November, beating out thousands of other students from around the country.

Repnow and her classmates were introduced to the FANschool contest by her Government Teacher Chauncy Hendershot who encouraged them to apply and throw their hat in the ring. Repnow embraced the challenge, absorbing information from websites like 538 to get a better understanding of races in states like Alaska, which had rolled out a new ranked choice voting system that left even some professional pundits scratching their heads.

“Politics has always been something I’ve been interested in for sure. It’s interesting to see how it intersects with history,” Repnow said, “But even 538 was a bit unsure. I thought well, I’ll go with Lisa Murkowski and it was right.”

When the dust settled after election day, Repnow wound up correctly predicting all 35 races, but was placed at No. 2 on the leaderboard thanks to a tiebreaker prediction for the percentage for voter turnout.

“So, I guessed all of them correctly, and then I was within a point of the correct voting percentage,” said Repnow, who credited her superlative results to, “My phenomenal history teachers who have helped me understand the political world. That and a combination of my own kind of gut feeling. I just went for it and it worked out.”

For her prescience, Repnow was awarded a $500 scholarship, and a trove of swag and other goodies for her class. FANschool also sent along a giant-sized baseball card of Repnow, commemorating her win.

Hendershot, her teacher, told FANschool after finding out the results, “Lydia is one of the very best and deserves some recognition and celebration.”

Repnow said she plans to attend Concordia College-Moorhead in Minnesota, in the fall, and intends to follow in her history teacher’s footsteps by double majoring in social studies, sociology and a minor in music.