GHS sending three teams to Academic Super Bowl finals

Members of the Greencastle High School English team will compete in the state finals Saturday after posting the highest English score in the state during area competition with 22 of 25 questions answered correctly. Coached by GHS teacher Nicole Kempf (standing), the team is composed of (from left) Hannah Gellman, Lily Spencer and Zach Wilkerson.

While the theme of this year's Indiana Academic Super Bowl competition has been "The Glory That was Greece," locally it might as well have been "The Glory That is Greencastle."

For Greencastle High School is sending three teams -- English, Science and Interdisciplinary -- to the 26th annual state finals Saturday, May 4 at Purdue University in West Lafayette.

And of the six overall academic teams fielded by Greencastle, five of them took first place at the recent area competition staged at GHS.

"And of those six teams, half of them are going on to the state Super Bowl finals," GHS Science team coach Brad Kingma pointed out.

The English team, coached by GHS Latin teacher and academic coach Nicole Kempf, is seeded highest going into Saturday's championship round.

Made up of Hannah Gellman, Lily Spencer and Zach Wilkerson, the GHS English team earned the highest Class 3 score statewide during the recent area competition. They correctly answered 22 of the 25 questions in winning the area contest.

Greencastle will now compete against Garrett, Eastern, Winamac, Bishop Luers and North Posey high schools for the English title in Class 3.

The Science team, coached by Kingma, is also finals-bound and will vie with Indian Creek, North Knox, Bishop Luers, North Newton and Wapahani high schools for the Class 3 Science title.

GHS Science team members are Beth Ann Hansen, Erik Norlin and Avery Robinson. They also had 22 right answers at the area level, two fewer than Indian Creek and North Knox, both of which registered 24 of 25.

The GHS Interdisciplinary team, composed of Hannah Gellman, Erin McConkey and Captain Avery Robinson, earned a state finals trip by virtue of the tie-breaker.

GHS is one of three teams with 17 correct answers at the area contest to move on to state competition. Greencastle will be up against Indian Creek, Cardinal Ritter, Park Tudor, South Spencer and Wapahani in the Interdisciplinary state finals.

Subject area rounds were also conducted in Fine Arts, Social Studies and Math.

Representing Greencastle High School in the state finals of the Academic Super Bowl Saturday will be (seated, from left) Erin McConkey, Hannah Gellman and Avery Robinson, and (standing, from left) English and Interdisciplinary coach Nicole Kempf, Zach Wilkerson, Lily Spencer, Beth Ann Hansen and Science coach Brad Kingma. Not pictured, Erik Norlin.

The GHS Math and Social Studies teams, coached respectively by Samantha Burk and Glenn Hile, captured area titles.

South Putnam won the area Fine Arts competition but did not qualify for the state contest. GHS was the only Putnam County school to qualify teams for the state finals.

Kathryn Dory is the overall Academic Super Bowl coordinator for Greencastle, which has a history of sending teams to the state finals dating back to the first year in 1987.

GHS has won at least 12 state titles overall, including four times in which the Tiger Cubs captured two titles the same year (1991, 1993, 1994 and 1998).

Area competition was conducted April 16 with approximately 5,800 students from 300 high schools competing in a contest sponsored by the Indiana Association of School Principals. Greencastle hosted 19 high schools and more than 400 students from west-central Indiana.

Schools are divided into four classes based on school size. Each school was represented in the competition by three to five persons on a subject area squad with as many as 30 students representing schools on the various squads.

In addition to Cloverdale, Greencastle, North Putnam and South Putnam, schools competing at GHS included Avon, Brownsburg, Danville, North Vermillion, Northview, Owen Valley, Plainfield, Riverton Parke, Rockville, Shakamak, South Vermillion, Terre Haute North, Terre Haute South, Tri-West and West Vigo.

Cloverdale, Greencastle, North Putnam and South Putnam all competed in Class 3.

Results of the Greencastle Area competition for Class 3 were as follows:

-- Fine Arts: 1st place, South Putnam; 2nd place, Cloverdale; 3rd place. South Vermillion.

-- Social Studies: 1st place, Greencastle; 2nd place, North Putnam; 3rd place, South Putnam.

-- Math: 1st place, Greencastle; 2nd place, North Putnam; 3rd place, South Putnam.

-- English: 1st place, Greencastle; 2nd place, South Putnam; 3rd place, South Vermillion.

-- Science: 1st place, Greencastle; 2nd place, North Putnam; 3rd place, South Putnam.

-- Interdisciplinary: 1st place, Greencastle; 2nd place, North Putnam; 3rd place, South Putnam.