For the second-straight year, a sixth-grader beat out the field of seventh- and eighth-graders to win the spelling crown. Sixth-grader Launa Jay of Littleton, the daughter of Wade Jay and Duska Britton, was crowned Houlton’s champion as she successfully spelled the words “esteem” and “microscope”
Seventh-grader Connor Fitzpatrick, the son of Brady and Jessica Fitzpatrick, was the runner-up.
Both the winner and runner-up earned the right to advance to the Aroostook County Bee — Thursday, Feb. 2, at 6:30 p.m. at the University of Maine at Fort Kent Fox Auditorium. The snow date is Thursday, Feb. 9.
“We are very pleased to conduct this spelling bee today and to crown a champion for our school to represent us in the Countywide spelling bee,” said Principal Marty Bouchard, who also served as the “Bee Master” for the event.
Bouchard also 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.
Houlton’s bee lasted just a little over an hour, which is a far cry from last year’s competition which took nearly double that amount of time. The bee featured a number of challenging words, like “fuddy-duddy,” “dimension,” and “gymnastics.”
Other participants in the bee included: eighth-graders Abigail Swallow, Trynity Mills, Maliyha Kinney, Sidney Peabody and Brandon Roshto; seventh-graders Gage Hanning, Paige Royal, Hope Chernesky and Aliya Sabattis-Webber; and sixth-graders Riley Sylvain, Kaden Hoyt, Grace Hardy and Kaylee Galeno.
Librarian Betty Fraser and Gifted and Talented teacher Jenn Carr served as judges for the event.
