Dowagiac student ties for first place in spelling bee
Published 8:00 am Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Dowagiac Middle School student Martha Schaller survived a record-setting 65 rounds to win this year’s Cass County Spelling Bee, tying for first place with Edwardsburg’s Maddie LaPierre after nearly an hour-and-half of competition. (Leader photo/TED YOAKUM)
Two years ago, the top competitors in the annual Cass County Spelling Bee waged a fierce battle, going through 39 rounds before the top speller emerged from the ranks.
On Monday, the grammatical geniuses comprising the top five absolutely demolished that record, going through 65 rounds before organizers finally decided to end the bee.
Dowagiac Middle School sixth-grader Martha Schaller emerged as one of two winners that afternoon, tying for first-prize with Edwardsburg student Maddie LaPierre, after nearly 30 minutes of head-to-head competition. The two managed to retain a pristine record for so long that the judges ran out of words from two lists for them to recite, forcing them to begin picking words from random out of the dictionary before they finally declared the competition a tie for the first time in county spelling bee history.
“I’m surprised,” Schaller said of her victory. “I wasn’t even expecting to be in the top five.”
Her marathon performance wraps up the weeks of preparation she and her fellow teammates on the sixth-grade team have out in leading up to Monday’s bee. Earlier that morning, the squad ended up in third-place during the
team competition.
“The team did fine, they worked very hard,” said their coach, David Schaller. “Once you’re under the lights on stage, it’s a different game from sitting around the table while practicing.”
The sixth-grade team was one of several representing Dowagiac Union Schools at the event, organized once again by the Lewis Cass ISD. Fourth through eighth-grade students competed against students from their respective grade from Marcellus, Cassopolis and Edwardsburg, with the top finishers on each team advancing to the individual competition that afternoon.
Overall, Dowagiac students did fairly well throughout the bee, with the fourth- and seventh-grade teams coming in second place while eighth grade placed in third. In addition, eight students performed strong enough to make into the individual competition, with sixth-grade student Ricky Haskell finishing just outside the top five, coming in sixth-place.
