Long Beach WordMasters 10th in Nation

Competing in the difficult Blue Division of the WordMasters Challenge, a team of Long Beach third-graders placed in the top 10 in the nation in the second meet of the year. Team members Hailey Brandt, John Chigounis, Leyla Dibra, Ava Liguori, Alexandra Mackenzie, Matthew O’Connor, Skylar Oberlander, William Pagan, Ariel Tamesh and Jared Tate, tied with three other teams for the sixth highest score in the nation. They were the only New York State team to finish in the top 10 at this meet. They tested their skills against 333 school teams around the country who participated at this grade level and division. Representing the Long Beach School District’s East, Lido, Lindell and West schools, as well as Long Beach Regional Catholic School, these students participated in the competition through the Long Beach Public Schools Learning Activities to Raise Creativity program, under the direction of LARC teachers Beverlee Bertinetti and Caitlin Fuentes.

The WordMasters Challenge is a national language arts competition that challenges students to think analytically and metaphorically to complete word analogies expressing various kinds of relationships.