Heavener case competition team wins first-place titles across the globe

The members of the Heavener International Case Competition (HICC) Team were champions across the globe, winning first place in three competitions: Copenhagen Business School Case Competition, University of Navarra International Case Competition and Corvinus Undergraduate Business Experience. 

Led by coach Sean Limon, the teams excelled on the international stage back-to-back, totalling three first-place finishes and one fourth-place finish in the spring season.     

“These competitions are very unique experiences because you are challenged with real-world business problems that the sponsoring companies are actually dealing with,” Andrew Delimitros (BSBA ‘26). “Working on these problems is some of the best education I have received at UF, and then we get immediate feedback by sharing our ideas with company executives who give real-world feedback.”

Copenhagen Business School Case Competition

Sarah Pagels (BABA ‘26) and her team, Zach Jones (BSBA ‘26, MIB ‘26), Max Kochkin (BSBA ‘28) and Vivian Phung (BABA ‘27) secured the university’s first win in history at the Copenhagen Business School Case Competition (CBS) in Denmark. Their achievement also marked the HICC team’s first big win in the 2026 spring competition season. 

The CBS welcomed 12 universities to compete across two cases: a small start-up and L’Oreal Nordics. Competitors included teams from the University of Southern California and Erasmus University.

The team won their division, second place in the short case and first place in both the long case and the overall competition. In addition, Pagels was awarded the Best Presenter award. 

“Our strategy was to go back to basics; choose recommendations that were implementable, feasible and most of all, answered the question the case was asking,” Pagels said. “Although the recommendations were simple, the way we presented them, framed the problem and messaged the solutions, is what made our presentation stand out.”

University of Navarra International Case Competition

After almost a decade of not competing at the University of Navarra International Case Competition, Emma Arigo (BSBA ‘26) and her team, Sarah Pagels, Cristi Haley (BSBA ‘27) and Sahana Vijay Krishna (BSBA ‘27) won first place.

Doug Leong was the main coach for this team due to his impressive track record at this competition. Limon credits Leong with bringing critical insight to the team that helped propel them to victory. 

This competition was hosted in Spain and consisted of three cases with different clients: a fitness equipment company, a SaaS sustainability platform and a pharmaceutical company. 

“We went with simpler ideas instead of more creative, unrealistic ideas,” Arigo said. “The judges loved the feasibility of our solutions! It made our presentations easy to follow and allowed our judges to visualize the strategy.”

Corvinus Undergraduate Business Experience

Meghana Reddy (BSBA ‘26), Zach DeKoven (BSBA ‘26), Jacob Schneider (BSBA ‘26) and Elias Smith (BSBA ‘28) won the Corvinus Undergraduate Business Experience (CUBE) in Budapest. 

CUBE gathers 16 top undergraduate teams to compete in three cases to solve real-world business problems. The team made it to the finals for each of these cases, winning first place in two individual competitions. In addition to their performance, the team received a direct shoutout and invitation from one of the sponsoring companies to work with them to implement the team’s ideas.

“Our team’s strength was deeply understanding the business and its constraints, which allowed us to focus on recommendations that were practical and implementable,” Reddy said. “Throughout the competition, we were very intentional about keeping our solutions realistic and structuring our decks in a clear, easily digestible way. We also consistently played devil’s advocate, anticipating potential questions and proactively addressing them within our presentations.”

Belgrade Business International Case Competition 

Delimitros, Victoria Michalski (BSBA ‘28), Haley Randolph (BSAc ‘28) and Sebastian Perez (BABA ‘27) ranked among the top four at the Belgrade Business International Case Competition (BBICC). 

The BBICC consists of three cases (two 5-hour cases and one 24-hour case) that address challenges such as market entry, growth and product segmentation. The 24-hour case was particularly intense, as the team was awake for the entire period to develop a complete and competitive solution. 

“Our team’s strategy is to approach each problem with a critical lens that focuses on providing value for the sponsoring company or client,” Delimitros said. “We work to address the underlying challenges that are creating the problem or work to help the company achieve a specific goal by finding areas they can capitalize on for growth.”