Five Greencastle, two North Putnam teams going to Academic Super Bowl state finals

Thursday, April 21, 2016
Members of Greencastle High School's three-time defending Class 3 state champion English team tackle a 2016 Indiana Academic Super Bowl question at the outset of competition Tuesday evening in the GHS multi-purpose room. Greencastle English team members are (from left) Ben Gellman, Alexandra Weliever and Kelly Hansen. Moderator Carol McDonald of Shakamak High School monitors their interaction. Nineteen teams competed in the 30th anniversary Super Bowl event at the GHS site. Teams qualifying for the May 7 state championship round at Purdue University were announced Wednesday afternoon. Banner Graphic/ERIC BERNSEE

Seven Putnam County teams are moving on to the state finals of the 2016 Indiana Academic Super Bowl.

For Greencastle High School, that means a tradition continues, while for North Putnam High School a tradition is emerging.

Greencastle is sending five of its six academic teams to the state finals May 7 at Purdue University, while North Putnam is sending a pair of its scholarly squads.

GHS will have its English, Science, Math, Social Studies and Interdisciplinary teams all competing for state titles, while North Putnam has put its English and Fine Arts teams into the state title mix.

Greencastle emerged from the local competition Tuesday night as the only school in Indiana to have five teams advancing to the state finals.

That falls right in line with the Academic Super Bowl excellence GHS has exhibited in past years -- such as in three state championship teams last year and two titles each of the previous two years. Or a total of 22 Academic Super Bowl championships in all since the GHS Science team brought home the school's first title in 1990.

Meanwhile, it marks the first time North Putnam has sent more than one team to the state finals in the same year. All of North Putnam's academic teams finished in the upper third of the state rankings Tuesday.

For 2016, the Greencastle English team, a three-time defending Class 3 state champion, is once again the leader of the pack, earning 23 correct answers of the 25 questions asked during regional competition at GHS Tuesday night. That was three points better than runners-up Fort Wane Bishop Luers and Wapahani.

Also ranked as the No. 1 team going into the state finals are the Greencastle Math and Interdisciplinary squads, both of which posted scores of 19. The Math team is tied with Eastern Hancock for the best overall regional competition score, while the Interdisciplinary squad is tied with Wapahani, North Montgomery and Andrean for the top mark in Tuesday night's regional contests.

The GHS English team, coached by Nicole Burkhalter, has Kelly Hansen, Alex Weliever and Ben Gellman are members.

Members of the GHS Science team, coached by Brad Kingma, are Sam Savage, Mattia Seaman, Nick Seaman, Connor Stimpert, Alex Thomas and Zach Wilkerson.

The Glenn Hile-coached Social Studies unit has Colin Dombrowski, Addison Hughes, Ethan Mooney, Lily Spencer and Katie Rose Parsons as members.

Members of the GHS Math team, coached by Samantha Burke, are Simon Foss, Kristy Huang, Sean Ramey, Sam Savage, Nick Seaman and Zach Wilkerson.

The Interdisciplinary team for GHS includes Colin Dombrowski, Kelly Hansen, Hillary Johnson, Katie Rose Parsons, Sam Savage, Alex Weliever and Zach Wilkerson.

North Putnam's Fine Arts team, coached by Brittney Hardy, got 17 right answers, posting the second-best Class 3 mark behind only Taylor High School of Kokomo with 19.

North students on the Fine Arts team are Alanna Nunez, Annie Peabody, Dawson Ottinger, Ronee Willoughby and Rachel Hamilton.

Meanwhile, the NPHS English team goes to the state seeded fourth among the seven finalists with 19 points, four behind leader Greencastle.

Students on the Monique Fields-coached NPHS English team are Jessica Copeland, Jessica Hays and Emily Stine.

Cloverdale and South Putnam also had teams competing in the regional but did not earn a state-finalist berth.

Overall, approximately 5,800 students from 300 high schools competed in the 30th annual statewide academic competition.

Greencastle hosted 19 schools and more than 400 students from west central Indiana. In addition to the Putnam County schools, teams competing were Avon, Brownsburg, Danville, Northview, Owen Valley, Plainfield, Riverton Parke, Rockville, Shakamak, South Vermillion, Terre Haute North, Terre Haute South, Tri-West Hendricks, Turkey Run and West Vigo.

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 the school on the various squads. Subject area rounds were held in Science, Fine Arts, Social Studies, Math and English. A sixth round of competition, the Interdisciplinary, was the climax of the competition.

The theme of this year's competition was "Hoosier Heritage."

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

Results of Tuesday's Greencastle regional competition for Class 3 are as follows:

-- Fine Arts: First place, North Putnam; second place, South Vermillion; third place, West Vigo.

-- Social Studies: First place, Greencastle; second place, South Vermillion; third place, North Putnam.

-- Math: First place, Greencastle; second place, Tri-West; third place, South Putnam.

-- English: First place, Greencastle; second place, North Putnam; third place, South Vermillion/Tri-West.

-- Science: First place, Greencastle; second place, South Putnam; third place, Cloverdale.

-- Interdisciplinary: First place, Greencastle; second place, North Putnam; third place, Cloverdale.

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  • Congratulations to all at GHS. This is an awesome accomplishment!

    J C

    -- Posted by What's on second on Thu, Apr 21, 2016, at 10:28 AM
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