Students rank nationally in high school WordMasters contest

Two teams of students representing Walla Walla High School recently won highest honors in this year's WordMasters Challenge, a national competition for high school students requiring close reading and analysis of many different kinds of prose and poetry.

Participating with 607 other school teams, more than 59,000 students, from all across the nation, the school's eleventh graders tied for 12th Place in the nation in the year's third meet, held in February. The school's twelfth graders tied for 7th Place in the nation. The teams were supervised by Wa-Hi English Teacher Lori Dohe.

Several students earned individual honors:
- Senior Emily Hollenbeck - Recorded a perfect score (one of only six in the country to do so)
- Junior Ellen Brigham - Placed among the 63 highest scoring juniors in the nation (she only made one mistake)
- Freshman Keira Opsal - Honorable Mention
- Freshman Nigel Melling - Honorable Mention
- Sophomore Victoria Henderson - Honorable Mention
- Junior Ryan Campeau - Honorable Mention
- Junior Delene Hutchinson - Honorable Mention
- Junior Amanda Nielsen - Honorable Mention
- Senior Amy Bell - Honorable Mention
- Senior Allison Erwin - Honorable Mention
- Senior Tim Duffy - Honorable Mention
- Senior Emily Brown - Honorable Mention
- Senior Sam Quackenbush - Honorable Mention

Dohe said she is proud of the students for doing great work. She also said the following Advanced Placement teachers deserve credit for helping students improve their academic achievements.
- Chris Ferenz
- Rob Ahrens
- Dan Ojcius
- Casey Monahan
- Pamela McBride
- Julie Johnson
- Gary Peasley