After 28 rounds and 251 words, Eureka USD 389 crowned eighth grader Sadie Seiter as the 2024 district champion, last Friday, Jan. 19. The district spelling bee went for twodays as 31 spellers embarked on the district bee last Thursday, Jan. 18, at 1:30 p.m. Spellers went eight rounds, but as the end-of-school bell was set to ring, the bee was postponed with seven spellers still vying for the top honor.
Those seven still competing were fourth grader Jace Daily; sixth graders Raegan Ashlock, Bryson Gilbert and Casen Wamsher; seventh graders McKenna McDonald and Rose Larsen and eighth grader Seiter. The ninth round, or the first one on Friday, proved challenging as five of the seven misspelled their words to leave Seiter and Larsen in the contest. The next 18 rounds saw Seiter and Larsen go word for word. Both misspelled words along the way, but it was Seiter who would spell her word correctly in the 27th round and again in the 28th round to be crowed the spelling bee champion. Seiter correctly spelled: “snail,” “spring,” “drooped,” “able,” “nighttime,” “cress,” “important,” “disdain,” “composition,” “forearms,” “recital,” “intertwine,” “crookedly,” “ambush,” “precious,” “devotion,” “saucer,” “submerged,” “diamond,” “hobbit,” “stitchery,” “deliberately,” “fowl,” spacious,” “ourselves,” and “sacred.”
Prior to the rounds resuming on Friday, four students: Kasen Del-Pozzo, Marcus Clark, Elika Brogan and Wayne McElroy held a spell off. Eight Eureka USD 389 students are eligible for the Greenwood County Bee and with all of them misspelling their word in the eighth round on Thursday, a spell off was needed to secure the final spot. After a few rounds, the eighth and final spot for the district bee was secured by fourth grader DelPozzo.
Pictured at left are the top three Eureka USD 389 spellers: Seiter, Larsen and Gilbert. Seiter is the daughter of Patrick and Staci Seiter of Virgil. Larsen is the daughter of Ian and Michelle Larsen of Eureka. Gilbert is the son of Amy Slaugh and Aaron Fletcher of Eureka.
Pictured on page 1 are the eight spellers representing Eureka USD 389 at the Greenwood County Spelling Bee on Tuesday, Feb. 6, at 9 a.m. in Madison: from left to right: front row, Seiter, Larsen and Gilbert; and back row: Ashlock, Wamsher, McDonald, Daily and DelPozzo.
Also competing at the district spelling bee were: Paxton Mitchell, Bronwyn Hall, Christiana Ford, Sophie Seiter, Tenlee Boles, Preston Milner, Donovan Owings, Charles Granado, Nyky Ovalle, Landon Noonan, Landon Bumgardner, Kane Lambdin, Autumn Burton, Franny Baxter, Maddox Hughes, Tucker Damron, Abel Brodie, Davin Walden, Daniel Camp and Cora Bumgardner.
