The Indian Springs Middle School Spell Bowl team started and ended their season Wednesday, November 1 as they competed in the 39th annual Indiana Academic Spell Bowl Junior Division Area contest held at Indian Springs Middle School. Due to the cancellation of the NE8 Middle School Spell Bowl competition the week prior, the scores in the Area competition also determined the NE8 Conference champion.
So it was the strangest of situations in that the ISMS Spell Bowl team finished 2nd in the Area competition among Class 1 schools, while at the same time was crowned NE8 conference champions!
Spelling for Indian Springs were Connor Hart, Brayden Springer, Joshua Gegner, Kaitlyn Strack, Kinlee Nicodemus, Autumn Sery, Joy Bower, and Deegan Engelberth. Top speller for Indian Springs was Joy Bower spelling six of her nine words correct. Also on the team but not spelling were Daniela Ruiz and Jason Coe.
Junior Division matches are run in eight rounds of nine words each for a total of 72 words in competition. Teams are separated into four Classes based on the student enrollment of each school. Indian Springs competes in Class 1. There were 15 Area competitions held around the state on November 1 with 127 teams competing throughout the four classes.
Schools competing in Class 1 at our local Area competition by score included: Maple Creek Middle School with a score of 50, Indian Springs Middle School with 25, Carroll Middle School with 21, and Summit Middle School with 15. The score of 25 places Indian Springs 26th state-wide among 39 Class 1 schools.
Top teams from Northeast Indiana in other classes were: Crestview Middle School in Class 2 with a 24 and Wabash Middle School in Class 3 with a 17. No other Whitley County teams competed in this year’s area competition.
Only three teams in the NE8 competed on November 1 – Crestview and Indian Springs at Indian Springs and DeKalb Middle School at Prairie Heights. Because DeKalb was competing at a different location, final results were not known until the following day. In the end, Indian Springs’ score of 25 topped both Crestview’s score of 24 and DeKalb’s score of 12, making Indian Springs Conference champion. This is the sixth conference win for Indian Springs in the past seven years.
Coach Dennis Beckner, in his 18th year coaching the ISMS team, said, “We are such a young team this year, I knew it would be a building year. Only two of the ten students on the team are returning from last year and there are no 8th graders on the team. To have all those things going against us and win the Conference championship shows the determination this team has. This team will be even stronger next year!”
This ends the season for ISMS Spell Bowl. The CCHS Spell Bowl team advances to the State Finals Saturday, November 11 at Purdue University in West Lafayette.
# #
Photo captions:
Photo by Dennis Beckner: The ISMS Spell Bowl team holds the NE8 trophy after a surprising win.
Photo by Bricyn Tincher: The ISMS Spell Bowl Team participated in the 2023 Spell Bowl Area competition held at Indian Springs Middle School. Team members pictured from left to right are: (front row) Deegan Engelberth, Brayden Springer, Joy Bower, Daniela Ruiz, Connor Hart, and Joshua Gegner. (back row) Kaitlyn Strack, Kinlee Nicodemus, Autumn Sery, Jason Coe, and Coach Dennis Beckner.