Ithaca Elementary Lit Wars teams participated in CESA 3 competition

1 min read

Ithaca Elementary Lit Wars teams participated in CESA 3 competition

By
Juli Thompson / Adam D. Hess

Mar 18, 2026, 1:25 PM CST

Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Reddit
Bluesky

Ithaca Elementary fourth and fifth grade Lit Wars teams participated in the recent CESA 3 competition hosted at Southwest Technical College last Friday (March 13). Students prepared for the contest by reading books on a list curated by CESA 3 coordinator, Meredith Biba.

Ithaca readers met regularly since October with advisor, Juli Thompson, to review the titles. Each reader became an “Expert” in one of the titles, and then competed head-to-head with other experts from the 13 participating schools. The team portion of the competition placed fourth grade teams against each other, while simultaneously fifth grade teams competed against each other. Making up the Ithaca Elementary teams were fourth graders Annabelle Barlow, Emmalyn Honer, and Donnie Wunnicke, and the fifth grade team of Hadley Czys, Avah Fargen, and Liam Starks. Top Ithaca finishers were: “Expert” winners Emmalyn Honer with third in her book “The Watsons Go to Birmingham -1963” by Christopher Paul Curtis; Liam Starks with third in his book “Wonderstruck” by Brian Selznick; and Avah Fargen with second in her book “Found” by Margaret Peterson Haddix.

The Ithaca Elementary fifth grade team proved they are “novel” readers with their first-place finish in the team category.


Adam Hess

Adam Hess has been involved in radio broadcasting since 1990, with many of those years spent on the air at WRCO FM in Richland Center. Currently, Adam hosts the Weekend Wake-up and Prime Mover Saturdays on WRCO FM, jumps in and helps out with news duties, handles Social Media duties for WRCO and WRCE, and is the Director of Technology at a Southwest Wisconsin School District. Reach him at adam.hess@civicmedia.us.

Civic Media App Icon

The Civic Media App

Put us in your pocket.