The John Marshall LifeSmarts team made its 8th consecutive appearance at the National LifeSmarts Championship held in Orlando, Florida.
The team, comprised of seniors Jasper Murrin, Alina Holliday, and Morgan Messner, along with junior Allie McGraw well represented John Marshall High School as the West Virginia championship team dominated each round of the initial seven rounds of competition earning a spot in the sweet 16 bracket final competition.
After a hard-fought back-and-forth battle with North Dakota, the team was unfortunately knocked out of the bracket, losing by just 10 points (one-question) landing a final 5th place finish.
Each year, one team from each state earns the chance to represent their state at the National LifeSmarts Championship, a program by the National Consumers League. Teams compete in various competitions ranging from educational videos, knowledge puzzles, team activities, and head-to-head buzzer rounds to challenge and showcase their knowledge in the topics of Technology & Workforce Skills, Environment, Consumer Rights, Personal Finance, and Health & Safety.
Teams use the knowledge they have learned throughout their school career, experiences outside of class, as well as specific topics learned through LifeSmarts to acquire the knowledge to be successful within the competition.
This year's team consisted of three returning senior members, Murrin and Holliday having competed the past two years in San Diego (2024 4th place finish) and Chicago (2025 5th place finish), and Messner competing in Chicago (2025), along with first time junior McGraw. The team hopes they will once again win the WV State Championship in 2027 to represent the state at the next National LifeSmarts Championship in Buffalo, NY in April 2027.
In addition to the team's success in regular competition, senior member Morgan Messner competed for a $1,000 scholarship by developing an educational game to teach her peers about Over-the-Counter Medicine Safety and posted a video of her activity. She was selected as one of five national attendees to be awarded a $1,000 scholarship sponsored by Kenvue.
The team also came together to secretly nominate their coach Megan Pintus for the National Coach of the Year award. Pintus, along with one additional coach from around the nation, were awarded the 2026 National Coach of the Year award.