By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
HOULTON, Maine — Spelling words is often times difficult enough, but spelling complex words on a stage in front of your peers can be downright difficult.
That did not deter 10 seventh and eighth graders from Houlton Junior/Senior High School from competing in the 2014 RSU 29 Spelling Bee Friday at the school. Lasting 17 rounds and nearly 45 minutes, this year’s spelling bee champion was decided with little drama as seventh grader Alexander Wilde successfully edged classmate Elizabeth Dunn for the title. Wilde spelled “podium” and followed with “joust” to win this year’s bee.
Students are given words in a random order from “Bee Master” LaDericka Sewell. Before the bee started, Sewell informed the contestants that last year’s Scripp’s National Spelling Bee champion collected $30,000 in cash and prizes for correctly spelling “knaidel,” which is a type of dumpling typically eaten in Jewish households during Passover.
Both Wilde and Dunn advance to the Aroostook County Spelling Bee, scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 6, at the Fox Auditorium at the University of Maine at Fort Kent. The state spelling bee will be held at the University of Southern Maine on March 22, and the winner of that contest will compete in the national bee at the end of May in Washington, D.C.
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.
Other contestants included Brianna Clossey,, Benjamin Grant, Tyler MacDonald, Duncan Bradshaw, Jeremy Cook, Benjamin Lowery, Jonathan Pratt and Cameron Shaw. The judges were Betty Frazier and Anne Kreyssig.
