Two local middle schools and one high school have qualified for the Indiana Academic Spell Bowl state championships.
Teams from Central and Northside middle schools are headed to the state finals in the junior division, and Columbus North High School has qualified for the senior division finals. Finals for both divisions will take place on Saturday, and there will also be an Individual Spell Bowl Contest on Nov. 15.
North qualified for state thanks to its performance at an Oct. 30 area contest, where it earned the fifth highest score among Class 1 schools and the sixth highest score in the state.
Two teams from Central competed at the Nov. 1 junior division area contest, with both doing well enough to qualify for state. However, competition rules stipulate that only one team from a school is eligible to advance to the finals, so Central’s Team 1 — which had the better score of the two — will advance. Team 1 earned the third highest score in both Class 1 and the state overall. Northside also qualified for state.
Spell Bowl is a program of the Indiana Association of School Principals and varies from the stereotypical spelling bee.
Teams in the elementary division will compete in area contests on Nov. 13, with state award winners announced the following day.
