The Columbia City High School Spell Bowl team won the NE8 Conference title for the tenth year in a row Tuesday, October 1 at DeKalb High School. The CCHS team dominated the competition by leading in every round. Columbia City ended the competition in first place with a score of 53 words spelled correctly out of 90. Close behind was second place Leo Jr/Sr High School with 51 points. DeKalb High School ended in third place with a 45. Fourth place went to New Haven High School with a score of 31. 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. Team members spell nine words each in a total of ten rounds.
Spelling for Columbia City were: Ava Rowe, Brie Montel, Jayden Jones, Jacob Swick, Bricyn Tincher, Holden Hamilton, Hayden Steinbacher, Maxwell McKinney, Dorian Anderson, and Annalise Swonger. Ava Rowe was awarded a ribbon for having a perfect round, spelling all 9 words correctly. This was the senior’s sixth perfect round of her high school career. Brie Montel 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 Leo had scored two more points.” Some of the ninth words spelled correctly by the CCHS team were psychoanalytic, omnivorous, pharmacologist, and hypochlorite.
“This was a great start to our 2024 season. I am so proud of this team for achieving another historic NE8 win,” commented Coach Beckner, who is in his tenth year as coach at Columbia City High School and his nineteenth year as coach at Indian Springs Middle School. The CCHS team has competed at the state level the past nine seasons and was named state champs in 2016 & 2017.
The CCHS team competes again on Tuesday, October 15 at the New Haven High School invitational. The Indian Springs team begins their season with the NE8 meet hosted by Paul Harding Jr/Sr High School on Wednesday, October 30.
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Article Submitted by Dennis Beckner
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) Braille Transcriptionist Carol Wyatt, Ava Rowe, Maxwell McKinney, and Dorian Anderson; (row 2) Hayden Steinbacher, Jayden Jones, Brie Montel and Coach Dennis Beckner; (row 3) Jacob Swick, Bricyn Tincher, Annalise Swonger, and Holden Hamilton. Not pictured: Aiden Grimble. (photo by Amanda Anderson)
Senior Ava Rowe achieves her sixth perfect round of her high school career at the NE8 Conference championship. (Photo by Dennis Beckner)
Senior Max McKinney spells in round 8 of the NE8 meet at DeKalb High School Tuesday night. (Photo by Carol Wyatt)