15th in the State but Number One in Our Hearts

Team+picture+before+competition.+From+left+to+right%3A+Jenna+Boese%2C+Meghann+McCoy%2C+Emily+Savage%2C+Phillip+Phan%2C+Megan+Shortridge%2C+Alyssa+Yoquelet%2C+Nathan+Shortridge%2C+Sahil+Patel%2C+and+Rachel+Smolinkse.+Not+pictured+is+Kaelyn+Bender.+

Team picture before competition. From left to right: Jenna Boese, Meghann McCoy, Emily Savage, Phillip Phan, Megan Shortridge, Alyssa Yoquelet, Nathan Shortridge, Sahil Patel, and Rachel Smolinkse. Not pictured is Kaelyn Bender.

For the eighteenth consecutive year the East Noble Spell Bowl team traveled to Purdue University to compete in the state competition. Each year 30 teams represent their schools, although this year only 29 teams were present since one school dropped out at the last minute.

The spelling Knights left after school Friday afternoon to avoid a very early wakeup call Saturday, since they had to make the three hour trek to West Lafayette. The Spell Bowl team was relentless. They spent ¾ of their ride to West Lafayette practicing words for Saturday’s competition. However, it didn’t stop there. After a quick dinner at the mall, the team headed back to the hotel and got ready for another hour-long practice. This time the spellers broke off into groups, picked challenging words for the other groups to spell, and had a fun competition that helped them prepare for State.

The spellers then had a little fun, playing a round of hide-and-seek and a game of Would You Rather before they went to sleep. Lights were out by 11 because the spellers had to get up at 7 (or, at least, the girls did) in order to be ready to leave by 8:45.

Once the spellers arrived at Loeb Playhouse on the Purdue University campus, they proceeded to get their team picture taken. By 10 o’clock the team was ready to spell, but they had nearly an hour before the competition began. Teams were all over the lobby, some taking pictures, others relentlessly looking over the word list.

By 10:45 all teams were seated in the auditorium, and the event began. Each team was recognized, called by class and then by rank.

Spell Bowl is very unlike a spelling bee in many ways. The spellers are on a team of ten, rather than spelling individually (although students spell individually to contribute to a team score). Instead of verbally spelling the words, each team member goes up on stage individually and is seated with a proctor from a different school. Each team has a speller on the stage at the same time, making for 29 schools spelling at once. The spellers are given a word that is then used in a sentence, and they write it down on a sheet placed in front of them. Each round consists of nine words, and students may ask for a repeat of a word after it is given and may even challenge the correct spelling or pronunciation of a word.

At the state competition, an electronic system is used to keep track of team scores. When a student gets a word right or wrong, the proctor presses a button on a keypad and the score changes on a projected screen towards the back of the stage. Unfortunately, there were many technical difficulties this year that left the proctors no choice but to manually keep track of score.

The spelling Knights spent countless hours preparing for this competition, and this showed in their performance on Saturday. The team scored a 63 out of a possible 90, with one individual getting a near-perfect score, and three with perfect scores. The East Noble Spell Bowl team placed 6th out of ten teams in class one, and 15th out of 29 teams in the entire state.

East Noble Individual Scores were as Follows:

Nathan Shortridge: 5
Kaelyn Bender: 6
Sahil Patel: 5
Megan Shortridge: 3
Jenna Boese: 8
Meghann McCoy: 3
Rachel Smolinske: 6
Emily Savage: 9
Phillip Phan: 9
Alyssa Yoquelet: 9

We couldn’t be more proud of our spellers!

More information on the Academic Spell Bowl competition (competing schools, word lists, results, etc.) can be found at http://www.iasp.org/dsp/academic/spell/.

Perfect spellers at the state competition. From left to right: Alyssa Yoquelet, Phillip Phan, and Emily Savage.
Perfect spellers at the state competition.
From left to right: Alyssa Yoquelet, Phillip Phan, and Emily Savage.