The Columbia City High School Spell Bowl team won the NE8 Conference title for the ninth year in a row on Wednesday, October 11. The CCHS team dominated the competition by leading in nearly every round. Columbia City ended the ten-round competition in first place with a score of 63 words spelled correctly out of 90. Close behind was second place DeKalb High School with 61 points. Leo Jr/Sr High School ended in third place with a 53. Fourth place went to New Haven High School with a score of 27. The other NE8 schools, Belmont, East Noble, Huntington North, and Norwell, did not participate in the event. In Spell Bowl, students spell words by writing them down instead of spelling them out loud as in a spelling bee.
Spelling for Columbia City were: Ava Rowe, Ava Harrison, Annalise Swonger, Jordan Potter, Maxwell McKinney, Jayden Jones, Brie Montel, Aiden Grimble, Dorian Anderson, and Joel Yager. Brie Montel was awarded a ribbon for having a perfect round, spelling all 9 words correctly. This was the sophomore’s first perfect round of her high school career. Ava Rowe spelled a near-perfect round, missing only one word. The ninth word of every round is considered a tie breaker word. Seven of the ten Columbia City spellers got their ninth word correct, which Coach Dennis Beckner said, “would have been valuable in the end if DeKalb had scored two more points.” Some of the ninth words spelled correctly by the CCHS team were pugilism, apocrypha, salicylic, and equilibrate.
“This was a great start of our 2023 season. I am so proud of this team for pulling through another NE8 win,” commented Coach Beckner, who is in his ninth year as coach at Columbia City High School and his eighteenth year as coach at Indian Springs Middle School. The CCHS team has competed at the state level the past eight seasons and was named state champs in 2016 & 2017.
The CCHS team competes again on Monday, October 30 in the area competition at Homestead High School. The Indian Springs team begins their season with the NE8 meet hosted by Paul Harding Jr/Sr High School on Wednesday, October 25.
The Columbia City High School Spell Bowl team finished in first place at the Northeast 8 Conference meet held at DeKalb High School. Pictured are from left to right: (row 1) Brie Montel, Annalise Swonger, Holden Hamilton, and Ava Rowe; (row 2) Dorian Anderson, Ava Harrison, Jayden Jones, Elaina Leach, and Clare Williford; (row 3) Coach Dennis Beckner, Aiden Grimble, Maxwell McKinney, Jordan Potter, Bricyn Tincher, and Joel Yager. Not pictured: Lucy LaRue. (Photo by Carol Wyatt)
Sophomore Brie Montel achieves her first perfect round of her high school career at the NE8 Conference championship. (Photo by Dennis Beckner)
Ava Harrison (left) and Aiden Grimble study the word list prior to the NE8 meet at DeKalb High. (Photo by Dennis Beckner)