DOWAGIAC — Only one word stood between Edwardsburg sixth-grader Nolan Tighe and the title of individual champion at the 2020 Cass County Spelling Bee.

The spelling bee hosted on Friday at Southwestern Michigan College by Lewis Cass Intermediate School District invited spellers from fourth through eighth grade from Dowagiac Union Schools, Marcellus Community Schools, Edwardsburg Public Schools and Cassopolis Public Schools to compete in a day of competition. The first half of the event was dedicated to team competitions.

Wearing matching Edwardsburg blue and orange T-shirts, the spellers from Edwardsburg were named the overall district winners at the 2020 Cass County Spelling Bee.

“These kids worked really hard,” sixth-grade teacher and spelling bee coach Cindy Hansel said. “We start our tryouts in October and start practices in November. We practice a couple of afternoons a week after school. They practice a lot at home, so a lot of preparation goes into preparing for this spelling bee.”

Hansel and Kim Stevenson, another sixth-grade teacher and spelling bee coach at Edwardsburg Middle School accepted the team trophy. They praised their students’ participation.

“We are incredibly proud of these guys,” Hansel said. They work so hard, and this is really just the icing on top of the cake for them. It’s been an awesome year, and they are a great group of students too. They are excellent representatives of the Edwardsburg School District.”

Hansel said some of the eighth-graders have been participating in the spelling bee since they were in fourth and fifth grade.

“We have some new people, too,” Hansel added. “They love to come out every year, and they have such a goal to make the individual round, and so we are really proud of them.”

In the final round, the Eddies had three students.

Ending in fifth place was Brooke Pettit, an eighth-grader at Marcellus. A three-way tie for second place went to Rowan Macloghlan, a sixth-grader at Edwardsburg, Mia Hurde, a seventh-grader at Edwardsburg and Tessa Deering, a sixth-grader at Dowagiac.

Tighe, who had to spell two words correctly to claim the title of the individual champion, has been competing in spelling bee competitions since second grade.

Tighe said he did not have any specific words that messed him up.

“For six days, I studied all of the words on a spelling bee list,” he said.

Tighe expected to do well, but was surprised when he was on the stage standing alongside the top individual spellers.

“I’ve been practicing for weeks, and it paid off,” he said.

Tighe’s favorite aspect of the spelling bee is competing individually.

“Individuals are based on my performance and less on how my teammates do,” he said.

He plans to continue to be involved in the Cass County spelling bee until eighth-grade.

“My heart was pounding when I had to spell the last word,” he said.

Tighe correctly spelled “habiliments” to win the title of the 2020 Cass County Spelling Bee individual champion.