HAINES — Sixth graders at Haines Elementary read nearly 66,000 minutes over four weeks to earn the title of Oregon State Reading Champions in ReadBowl 2025.

This is the second year Karley Witten’s class earned the title.

“This year’s group was impressive to watch as every single one of them put minutes on the reading board,” she said.

The students competed in the middle school division, which included grades six through eight across the country. Reading in school and at home counted toward the total.

Jayde Anderson was the top reader at Haines with 4,278 minutes — that’s an average of 2.5 hours per day.

“Jayde’s dedication, leadership and motivation helped her class to win a state championship,” Witten said.

Witten plans to have her sixth graders compete next year, too.

“That’s a lot of pressure for next year’s class,” Lucy Snow, one of Witten’s current students, said with a smile.

ReadBowl 2025: The World Championship of Reading is a global reading competition organized by Read with Malcolm, the youth literacy initiative of Malcolm Mitchell, an NFL Super Bowl champion and children’s book author.

In its eighth year, the competition ran from Jan. 13 to Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. The contest drew 808,500 students from all 50 states and 14 countries. In total, students read for more than 528 million minutes, according to the website.