Local spellers challenge for trip to Washington DC

By PATSY STODDARD Editor

The Southeast Education Service Center presented the regional spelling bee on March 4 at Green River High School.
Winning spellers from each of the four counties including Emery, Grand, San Juan and Carbon participated in the event.
The winner of the event will receive an all expense paid trip for two to Bee Week in Washington DC over Memorial Day weekend in May.
JJ Grant from the Southeast Education Service Center welcomed everyone and introduced Chas DeWitt from the San Juan School District as the pronouncer for the event.
Grant said the words for the spelling bee come from the Merriam Webster third dictionary. Grant encouraged the students to practice their spelling year-round from the dictionary.
Grant acknowledged those helping with the event included: Teresa Wilson, Johnna Boyack and Cynthia Grant. The spelling bee is operated in rounds. In the practice round everyone came forward and spelled their last name. The spellers were all given numbers. If a speller misses a word they were to remain on stage until everyone in that round has a chance to spell a word.
Spellers were never asked to spell a word someone else had misspelled.
The pronouncer worked to ensure each student understood the word they were to spell. The students can ask to have the word repeated. They can ask for the word origin and the part of speech of the word. Students can ask for the word to be used in a sentence. Some words have alternate pronunciations which were outlined for the spellers. The spellers were encouraged to take their time and relax.
After the rules were reviewed the spelling began. The spellers included: from Carbon district-Victoria Nelson, sixth grade from Sally Mauro; Mikayla Taggart, sixth grade from Sally Mauro. Emery County spellers included: Tiana Jensen-seventh grade from Canyon View Junior High, Douglas Maughan-fifth grade from Bookcliff elementary, and Arilyn Allred-fifth grade from Huntington Elementary. Grand County spellers included Teddy and Kevin Park-seventh grade from Grand Middle School and Miranda Corbin-sixth grade from HM Knight. San Juan spellers included Grange Simpson from ARL Middle-eighth grade, Jessica Walker from ARL Middle-eighth grade and Aspen English from Monticello High School-seventh grade. Pinnacle Academy students included JR Jensen, seventh grade, Karely Urrutia fourth grade and Maylee Gregersen-fifth grade.
First round words included: hamster, barley, average, bevel, mermaid, polka, kipper, sumo, mascot, ravel, errand, humble and caboose.
One speller was put out in the first round. The competition moved to the second round with ambulance, transect, banders, diorama, powwow, hurdle, manicure, hearth, fiesta, gradient, broadleaf, jovial, dracula, gunnysack. Round three included: rupee, malaria, hustings, pandit, strategy, graffiti, foliate, haiku, julep, crusoe, herbivore, apathy, wiseacre and chalupa.
Round four words included: palette, automaton, saffron, portfolio, medic, anchovy, kabuki, toucan, corporal and frankenstein.
Round five moved to words like rouge, sadilla, orthodox, contiguous, gondola, plausible, flotilla and topography.
Round six: crescendo, tortoni, nebbish, spinet, monotonous.
Round seven words: protagonist, sashay, bolero, nabob, piazza. Round eight: infinitesimal, langlauf, recidivism, nemesis, verboten. Round nine: commiserate, mercerize, conquistador, spiel, meiji,
Round 10: eocene, skipperkey, prabhu.
Teddy Park and Victoria Nelson faced off for third place, both missing a word in the same round. Teddy took third place. After third place was decided then Kevin Park and Grange Simpson were the only two spellers left. Grange went on to spell malcontent and his championship word was pentagon. This placed Grange Simpson in first and Kevin Park in second. Simpson will be going to Washington DC to represent southeastern Utah at the Scripps National spelling bee.
After the spell down, each of the spellers was presented with a trophy and prizes.