Small school has 13 sets of multiples

BOWMAN, N.D. (KFYR/Gray News) – Students and teachers at a school in North Dakota are used to seeing double and triple. Among the nearly 500 students, there are 13 sets of multiples, both twins and triplets, from kindergarten to seniors.

There are 11 sets of twins and two sets of triplets at Bowman County School.

“The water’s different here,” joked Bohden Duffield.

Bohden and his identical twin Bishop are the oldest multiples in the school.

“It’s pretty awesome to be a twin,” Bohden said.

The chance of having identical twins is about 1 in 250. Fraternal twins are a little more common. Triplets occur in about one in every 10,000 pregnancies.

Maggie Johnson has a thing for basketball. But she’s not sure it’s her favorite sport. She and her twin brother Walker like a lot of sports.

“Basketball, football, soccer and baseball,” the twins said.

The third graders are competitive on the court and in just about every other part of their lives, including who’s older. Maggie barely wins that competition.

“By one minute!” she said with a smile.

If there was a competition for the school with the most sets of twins and triplets, Maggie and Walker’s school might be the winner.

“Look how cute we were!” exclaimed Sophia Headley, as she looked at a picture of her sisters and her when they were in preschool. “We used to look more alike, but as we grew up, we all kind of got our own personalities and just stopped looking alike.”

The Headley triplets no longer look alike, but Sophia, Anna and Hadley are still grateful for each other.

“If one triplet is gone, you always have another one,” Sophia said.

The Mrnak triplets agree that being a triplet is pretty great.

“You always have a brother to talk to,” Vance said.

Vance and his brothers Bennett and Ellis are just finishing up third grade.

Fraternal twins and seventh graders Hadley and EJ Janikowski say being a twin is cool, but also a little annoying.

“We had to share a room for a very long time. So, we had to share everything, and we had spent a lot of time together,” Hadley said.

But they know that time together is a gift, and being a part of this group of multiple multiples is something pretty special.

“It’s just crazy there are 13 sets,” Bishop said.

Bowman County Elementary Principal Kelley Ouradnik said there used to be even more multiples in Bowman County School; three sets have moved away in the past several years.

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