County Spelling Bee crowns champions

THOMPSON FALLS – What do fandango, feldspar, bungalow and diagnosis all have in common? These are four of the words that carried the 2014 Sanders County Spelling Bee Champion to the finish.

After ten rounds, including one practice round, sixth grader Ethan Brown of Thompson Falls was crowned the Spelling Bee Champion.

He beat out 23 of his competitors from Trout Creek, Plains, Hot Springs, Noxon and Dixon.

The rules were simple – each contestant was allowed to ask for the word to be repeated, the words definition, the use of the word in a sentence and the language of origin. Participants were required to pronounce the word before and after they spelled it.

If the word was spelled correctly, the three judges consisting of Linda McKahan, Sara Czerwinski and Karen Dwyer, would hold up a green card and if it was spelled incorrectly the judges would hold up a red card.

The winner was the speller who remained as the only competitor to spell a word correctly in a round. After that, the speller had to spell one more word correctly in the final round where they were the only competitor.

If the word was misspelled, the spellers who were ousted in the previous round returned to the competition.

Brown had a close call in round six. He spelled prattle incorrectly and almost lost his shot at a win. Cody Williams, the remaining speller in the competition missed his next word, which would have crowned him the winner. This brought Brown back into the competition along with Morgan Legard from Hot Springs.

After a few more rounds, the word fandango sealed Brown’s victory. As he was announced the winner, Brown lit up with joy. He was given a trophy and was proud of his accomplishment.

“It feels really great to win it,” Brown said.

This wasn’t the only competition Brown won this year. He was also crowned the champion of the School Geography Bee. He hopes he’ll be able to make it to state in that competition as well.

For now, Brown is focused on preparing for the State Spelling Bee in Billings on Saturday, March 22.

“I’m definitely going to do a lot of studying. What helps me for preparation too is I read a lot. That just helps me with seeing a lot of words and to know how to spell all the words,” Brown explained.

This was the 27th year the County Spelling Bee was conducted. Tom Eggensperger facilitated the bee and the pronouncer was Dan Whittenburg.

Both First Security Bank and the Sanders County Ledger sponsor the bee annually.

Eggensperger said it was a fun event to put on and he was happy to provide the kids an opportunity to continue to excel academically.