Since 1925, children across America have participated in classroom, school, and regional spelling bees hoping to advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
While only nine spellers participated in that first competition 100 years ago, their legacy lives on in the millions of students who compete at all levels of the spelling bee program today.
In that spirit of competition, Turner Public School students in grades five through eight gathered in the Turner Gymnasium on Tuesday morning, January 21 for a spelling bee show down. After a rotation through all fifteen of the contestants, sixth grader Rhett Ammen emerged as the champion. The remaining award- winning places were all occupied by eighth graders. Hannah Van Voast was first runner-up, Piper Fox will serve as the alternate, and Savannah Heilig captured fourth place.
Superintendent Jenni McAllister and Dr. Donna Miller acted as judges for the spelling bee, and Mrs. Elissa Zellmer served as the pronouncer. After welcoming everyone to the "spell down," Zellmer reminded the spellers to "slow down, ask questions, and think positively."
Once the bee was under way, one speller went out in the first round, another had to take her seat in Round Three, and three competitors met obstacles in Round Four with words like nook, grins, and enjoy.
For the following two rounds, all players stayed alive until Round Seven when two more met misfortune in the words stiff and noisy. Ironically, just before Mrs. Zellmer pronounced noisy, the school's heating system kicked on, adding a din of commotion to the setting. Furthermore, in Round Eight, the eighth speller took her seat.
The remaining seven contenders stayed alive for the next three rounds, with one going out during Round Twelve and two more missing words in Round Fourteen. That left four spellers alive until Rounds Seventeen and Eighteen when two dropped out. Van Voast and Ammen battled for another thirteen rounds before Ammen emerged the champion by correctly spelling ghostly, the championship word in Round 32.
About his win, Ammen's initial response was to reply: "I can't believe I won the spelling bee!" When asked what contributed to his win, Ammen revealed that he "practiced a lot and thought about the correct spelling of each word."
Ammen and Van Voast will advance to the Blaine County Spelling Bee, which is scheduled for Wednesday, February 5 at Chinook High School in the Lloyd D. Sweet Auditorium. Featuring a total of 29 contestants from Turner, Chinook, Zurich, Harlem, and Hays/Lodgepole, the event will begin at 10:00 a. m. according to Mari Anne Skoyen, Deputy at Blaine County Superintendent of Schools.