By: Michelle Kinsey—
Muncie, IN– Fifty-five spellers are scheduled to compete in the fifth WIPB Spelling Bee, set for 9 a.m. Saturday, March 7, in Sursa Performance Hall, on the campus of Ball State University.
Family, friends and fans are invited to attend the competition. Admission is free.
Students will compete from schools in Delaware, Blackford, Jay, Randolph, Madison and Henry counties. The Ball State University Teachers College has generously contributed the funds to cover the Scripps fees for all of the schools to participate.
The champion of the WIPB Spelling Bee will win an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Other prizes for the spellers include reference books, gift certificates and more.
WIPB will not be broadcasting or streaming this year’s regional bee live due to new requirements from Scripps. The recorded bee will air at 9 a.m. March 14 and 8 p.m. March 19 on WIPB.
Last year’s WIPB Spelling Bee champion was Andrew Toney, now an eighth-grader at Lee L. Driver Middle School in Winchester. The first runner-up was Trooper Bullock from Wes-Del Jr./Sr. High School and the second runner-up was Mahathi Raju, a student at Yorktown Middle School.
Each year, in addition to this regional bee, WIPB partners with Motivate Our Minds for a weekly spelling bee club at the center. The club was created to get students excited about spelling, become more comfortable with public speaking and find motivation to achieve their goals. It will culminate later this month with a Club Bee that enables kids who did not advance to the WIPB event the opportunity for “bee” successful within the club.
Top presenting sponsor of the 2020 WIPB Spelling Bee is Family Vision Care. Presenting sponsor is MutualBank. Other supporting sponsors include Boyce Systems, Avila Orthodontics; Dr. Leland C. Wilhoite, DDS. Our Speller Shirts Sponsor are the employees of Navient and bags for our spellers are being provided by the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities. Several area businesses also donated prizes to go inside the speller swag bags.
Below are the schools, and their champion spellers, scheduled to compete in the fifth WIPB Spelling Bee:
Albany Elementary School – Keegan Irwin
Alexandria-Monroe Intermediate – Carter Sovern
Anderson Christian School – Krystina Bair
Bloomfield Elementary School – Clark Wellman
Blue River Valley Elementary School – Nick Courtney
Burris Lab School Middle – Alesya Rathinasamy
Burris Laboratory School – Lydia Wu
Cowan Elementary School – Jacob Garringer
Daleville Elementary School – Ava Schulz
Deerfield Elementary School – TaMerra Edwards
Delta Middle School – Abigail Lindburgh
East Elementary School – Lily Blosser
East Jay County Middle School – Adamaris Ruiz- Herrera
Eastside Elementary School – Amari Robinson
East Washington Academy – Jeremiah McGill
Eaton Elementary School – Kaiden Huddleston
Frankton Elementary School – Caleb Clendenen
General Shanks Elementary School – Fletcher Nichols
Heritage Hall Christian Elementary School – Zane Brady
Heritage Hall Christian Middle School – Caleb Cunningham
Highland Middle School – Abigail Morgan
Homeschool Explorers – Priscilla Scott
Lee L Driver Middle School – Andrew Toney
Liberty Christian Elementary School – Jada McGraw
Liberty Christian School – Emma Holmes
Longfellow Elementary School – McKenna Wable
Maple Ridge Elementary School – Zachary White
Monroe Central Elementary School – Colton Nickols
Montpelier School – Jaiden Fields
North Side Elementary School (Union City) – Mylo Jasso
North Side Elementary School (Hartford City) – Cynthia Hess
North View Elementary School – Jaxen Vance
Northside Middle School – Brayden Courtney
Pendleton Elementary School – Claire Carpenter
Randolph Southern Elementary School – Sarah Glunt
Redkey Elementary School – Brayden Barlow
Royerton Elementary School – Tanvi Chhajed
Selma Elementary School – Penelope Carl
Selma Middle School – Gracie Crow
South View Elementary School – Marius Daniels
Southside Middle School – Mikayla Smith
St. Lawrence Elementary School – Attara Duke
St. Mary Elementary – Shyenne Punzal
St. Pope John Paul II Middle School – Shae Punzal
Union City Community Jr/Sr High School – Zackary Fulk
Union Elementary School (Modoc) – Alyssa Wilson
Union Junior & High School (Modoc) – Chloe Wicker
Wes-Del Elementary School – Georgia Davis
Wes-Del Jr./Sr. High School – Trooper Bullock
West Jay County Middle School – Jade Nuckols
West View Elementary School – Johanna McKee
Westlawn Elementary School – Beckett Brandenburg
Willard Elementary School – Jordan Feltis
Yorktown Elementary School – Avinash Kambham
Yorktown Middle School – Caitlin Carter
A Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) affiliate, WIPB-TV is licensed to Ball State University and serves nearly 1.5 million people in east central Indiana and western Ohio. WIPB endeavors to educate, entertain and engage the communities we serve through distinctive television programs and enriching community engagement. For more information call 800-252-9472 or visit WIPB online at http://www.wipb.org.
