Heritage Hills Middle School held its Spelling Bee on Tuesday, January 18th to
determine who would represent the school at the corporation spelling bee. The North
Spencer Corporation Spelling Bee will take place at Heritage Hills High School on
Thursday, February 10th.

Before the final competition each of the four teams held a classroom spelling bee to
determine which students would compete in the school spelling bee. The eighth grade
students who competed in the bee were Ben Brickey, Trevis Mattingly, Melanie Combs,
Madeline Crews, Sienna Crews, Bryson Hile, Meridith Balbach, Nicholas Gogel, Shelby
Winner, Sam Collins, Amanda Dellamuth, and Andrew Bell. The seventh grade was
represented by Rebekah Mercker, Collin Kerstiens, Marie Spear, Trevor Gress, Jesse
Smith, Alexa Gengelbach, Mason Becher, Keith Woolems, Andrew Shaw, Dregan Pike, Olyvia
Blessinger, Kaden Schaefer, Griffin Tempel, Max Evitts, Jamie Tempel, and Kenton
Crews.

At the end of the competition, the school winners were eighth graders Meridith
Balbach, champion, and Shelby Winner, runner-up. Meridith is the daughter of John and
Marian Balbach of Dale. Shelby is the daughter of Presley and Sarah Winner of Santa
Claus. Both girls will compete in the North Spencer Corporation Spelling Bee.

The alternate is seventh grader Trevor Gress, son of Dan Gress and Diane Stetter of
Santa Claus.