After seven rounds, Sadie Seiter claimed her second consecutive Greenwood County Spelling Bee title and will represent the county at the state spelling bee on Saturday, March 23, at Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina.
It took a total of seven rounds and 36 words for a champion to be crowned. Fifteen students began the contest with three remaining as the county bee entered the third round.
Rose Larsen, Sadie Seiter and Bryson Gilbert, all representing Eureka USD 389, again went head-tohead, with the outcome being the same as it was at the USD 389 spelling bee last month. The contest was down to two spellers in the fourth round and with Larsen misspelling her word (simultaneously), Seiter needed to spell her word (magistrates) and the championship word (thyroid) correctly to be named champion. With Seiter misspelling the championship word, the contest continued another three rounds before Seiter correctly spelled “lymphoma” and “matterhorn” and was named the Greenwood County Champion for the second consecutive time. Seiter correctly spelled “insolent,” “altimeter,” “Brooklyn,” “magistrates,” “jeopardy,” “antechamber,” “lymphoma,” and “matterhorn.”
Seiter will now compete at the Sunflower State Spelling Bee on March 23. The winner of the state spelling bee will advance to the national contest in National Harbor, Md., May 26-31. The national competition will begin with the Preliminaries on Tuesday, May 28, and conclude with the Finals on Thursday, May 30. The National Spelling Bee began in 1925 when nine newspapers joined together to host a spelling bee.
Competing at the county level were: from Madison- Virgil USD 386: fourth grader Huxley Bellinger, sixth graders Jorja Beeman and Gracelynn Stock; seventh graders Molly Hurlburt and Ben Thompson; and eighth graders Olivia Adams and Lily Kingery; and from Eureka USD 389: fourth graders Jace Dailey and Kasen Del-Pozzo; sixth graders Raegen Ashlock, Bryson Gilbert and Casen Wamsher; seventh graders Rose Larsen and McKenna McDonald; and eighth grader Sadie Seiter.
