Bainbridge, Tzouanakis top finishers in local Spell Bowl competition

Sixteen local schools converged on South Putnam Central Elementary School Thursday evening for the annual Elementary Spell Bowl competition.

Two local schools rose to the tops of their divisions locally, with Bainbridge Elementary Team 1 winning the Red Division and Tzouanakis Intermediate winning the Orange Division.

Other winners in the Central competition were Rockville in Green Division and Spencer in Blue Division.

Spencer had the top score at the local competition with 51 points and give perfect spellers.

Tzouanakis had the top Putnam County score with 46. The school can also boast three perfect spellers in Rebecca Hebb, Hadley McCoy and Sophie Riggle. Tzouanakis had two near-perfect spellers (six of seven words) in Charlie Menzel and Hunter Miller.

For Bainbridge 1, the winning score in the Red Division was 37 points, winning a tiebreaker over Central. Myles Bryan was a perfect speller for Bainbridge 1, while Jordan Hanger and Opry Curran were near-perfect.

For Central, Jackson Hayman, Alexa Newby and Sadey Shellenberger were near-perfect.

Other perfect spellers in the county included Arrick Kramer and Jubilee Majors from Roachdale, Eli Porter from Bainbridge 2 and Kayla Heagy of Fillmore.

Near-perfect spellers also included Callie Knowling and Ethan Lawler of Roachdale, Chase Hanger of Bainbridge 2, Daniel Bunten of Fillmore and Brandy Koosman of Cloverdale.

Full results
Red: Bainbridge (1) 37, Central 37, Roachdale 35, Bainbridge (2) 34, Fillmore 32, Van Buren 25
Orange: Tzouanakis 46
Green: Rockville 40, Gosport 35, McCormick's Creek 31, Rosedale 31, Montezuma 30, Cloverdale 29, Turkey Run 26, Patricksburg 26
Blue: Spencer 51