GLEN RIDGE — Two borough students, Linus Holzapfel, a 2026 Glen Ridge High School graduate, and his younger brother, Leo Holzapfel, a rising sophomore, recently participated in the prestigious International Geography Competition, which was in Khao Lak, Thailand. Linus was in the high school division, with Leo in the older students bracket, grades 7-12.
“New Jersey is a big hot-bed of competitors,” Linus said. “I think we had the second-most behind California. In terms of the number of medals won, we were second behind California.”
The brothers were also members of the school’s highly successful history club team, with the guidance of David Majewski. Earlier this year, in the National, in Arlington, Va., the team was a win shy of advancing to the knockout round of 32. The IGC expedition to Thailand, however, was not school-related. Both brothers credited Majewski for inspiring them to compete and they did well in Thailand. Linus narrowly missed getting into the finals, coming in 14th against 70-80 students from all over the world.
The IGC is very difficult to study for, requiring a wide breadth of knowledge, but also strong buzzer skills, something which develops with experience and confidence.
In addition to the finals, there are also competitive geographic-related subdivisions such as culinary, music and economics.
“I’ve always had a special skill in geography,” Linus said. “My grandfather encouraged me to pursue it. My success in the history bowls inspired me to take the IGC qualifying exam. I scored high enough, allowing me to compete in Thailand.”
Leo was eligible to compete in Thailand because he was the sibling of a contestant.
“He rode in on my coattails,” a grinning Linus remarked.
Nonetheless, Leo distinguished himself.
In the older students’ competition, which does not have a comprehensive geography competition as the high school level does, there were not as many students. But Leo did win four subdivision medals: golds in music and culinary and silvers in travel/tourism and vexillology – the study of flags. Linus also won a musical geography gold medal.
“Linus has always been a big fan of Spotify,” Leo said.
The IGC is a buzzer competition and a student can buzz in at any point. If you are wrong, points are deducted. But if you allow the questioning to progress, hints to the answer become more evident and the question becomes easier, but fewer points can be scored. Questioning can run its course, hints are exhausted and the question is dead, although that rarely happens.
“The level of competition is so high,” Linus said. “They’re all skilled.”
For the music award, the same questions were asked, but in different rooms. There were two types of questions. The first was the traditional spoken question. The second was the playing of snippets of music and answering a question about them.
For example, three snippets were played, one from “West Side Story,” one from “Hamilton” and one from “In the Heights.” Question: What common thread runs through these compositions? Answer: The setting for the musicals in which these snippets were derived is New York City.
Besides Majewski, the boys credit their father, Marc, with giving them an edge. More exactly, his employment, which required him to travel considerably and wrack up those frequent-flyer miles. Linus has been to every state; Leo, to all but South Carolina and New Mexico.
Linus will be starting at Wake Forest University next month.
“My family figured, since I’m graduating, we went to Thailand as a kind of send-off,” he said. “We flew into Singapore.”
“It’s the longest commercial flight in the world,” Leo said. “Eighteen hours and 8,000 miles.”
Commenting on the brothers, Majewski said Linus was the varsity History Bowl team MVP this year.
“He led us to a 6 and 4 record at Nationals this past April,” he said. “Even with Linus’s graduation, the program is in strong hands, as his younger brother, Leo, a freshman, was part of a talented JV squad that finished third at Nationals in Arlington, Virginia.”
Photo by Daniel Jackovino
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