The Plymouth High School Spell Bowl team finished second at the state finals at Purdue University on Saturday.  In Class 2, John Glenn won with a score of 84, followed by Plymouth with 75, and Gibson Southern, 64. Pauline Dagaas, Zach Mahan, Ashley Stokes, and Grace Stokes earned perfect scores.  This was the second perfect score this season for Mahan, the team's only senior.  Two near perfect spellers, Abby Schumacher and Kurt Corsbie, missed only one word each for the second and third time this season, respectively.  This was Plymouth's second trip to the state finals in as many years and a season and school-record performance, capping off a highly successful season.  At the NLC meet in October, the team placed first with a score of 70, maintaining conference champion status for the second year in a row.   They followed up their impressive Conference Championship by winning the  Area Contest with a score of 71.  Team members include freshmen Allegra Davis and Cody Gamble; sophomore Nate Mahan; juniors Dakota Bradley, Kurt Corsbie, Pauline Dagaas, Angel Figueroa, Tori Godwin, Dana Hall, Kelsey Schnieders, Abby Schumacher, Ashley Stokes, Grace Stokes,and senior Zach Mahan. Some of the team's winning words at the state contest included seigneury, assent, syzygy,, teraph, tocsin, imbroglio, peperomia, atlatl, Reykjavik, and dermatomyositis.

The PHS Spell Bowl team followed up their impressive Conference Championship by winning their Area Contest and advancing on to the State Finals on November 12 at Purdue.  The team narrowly defeated perennial winner and host John Glenn with a season high score of 71.  It was a dramatic finish for the team as Glenn also ended the night with a score of 71, but Plymouth proved to be the winner on the third tiebreaker.  Five students, Kurst Corsbie, Zach Mahan, Abby Schumacher, Pauline Dagaas, and Allegra Davis had near perfect scores and Nate Mahan finished with a perfect score.  Some of the team's winning words included driblet, metalliferous, tocopherol, antipodal, pteredine, blintze, viscacha, farinaceous, millefiori, and xeric. 

On Monday night the PHS Spell Bowl team traveled to Northwood to compete in the NLC Spell Bowl Championships.  The team, lead by English teacher Amy Schmeltz, took home first place for the second year in a row.  The lone perfect speller for the night was senior Zach Mahan.  Near perfect spellers were: Nate Mahan, Pauline Dagaas, and Kurt Corbsie.  The team will next compete in the state tournament area competition on October 17.  For a list of the words that these students are being challenged to spell click here.