Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Joseph Cyr
MASTER SPELLERS — RSU 29 held its district Spelling Bee Wednesday with 15 students vying for the crown. Chloe Davis, left, won the competition, while Hunter Sargent was runner-up. With the students is Bee Master LaDericka Sewell.
By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
HOULTON — Spelling words that are not commonly used in everyday language is always a tricky proposition. But that did not deter 15 young men and women from competing in the 2013 RSU 29 Grade 6-8 Spelling Bee.
And when the dust settled, eighth-grader Chloe Davis was crowned Wednesday as the 2013 spelling champion for Houlton Junior/Senior High School. Davis edged out fellow eighth-grader Hunter Sargent for the title after she successfully spelled the word “recipient,” followed by the word “garment.”
Sargent was knocked out of the competition by the word “exception.”
Both Davis and Sargent advance to the Aroostook County Spelling Bee slated for Friday, Feb. 8 at the Fox Auditorium at the University of Maine at Fort Kent. The winner of the County Bee moves on to the state Bee, held at the University of Southern Maine, March 30. The state winner moves on the National Bee May 26-June 1 in Washington, D.C.
Lasting 13 rounds and nearly an hour in length, Wednesday’s spelling competition featured such challenging words as “squalid,” “whiskery” and “undertow.” Students are given words in a random order from “Bee Master” LaDericka Sewell. Judges were Betty Frazier, Anne Kreyssig and Wayne Brown.
Students were presented with tablets of paper and pencils to write their words down, if they so chose. Sewell went over the rules with the spellers explaining they could ask for their word to be pronounced again; ask for a definition; or ask to hear the word used in a sentence.
Others participating in the spelling bee were: sixth-graders, Breanna Croxen, Ben Grant, Elizabeth Dunn, Nolan Porter, Alex Wilde; seventh-graders, Reniah Esposito, Owen LaFond, Abe Lorom, Emily Miller, Kyle White; and eighth-graders Mikayla Fitzpatrick, A.J. Thorne and Zach Reece.
