Spelling Bee Yields Unexpected Results

For 35 years, elementary-aged children have been participating annually in Solano County Office of Education’s Spelling Bee Competition. Each year students in grades fourth through sixth study their hearts out in hopes of advancing to first or second place, and winning a trophy almost as tall as they are.  This year, however, there was no second place winner, but rather, four children taking home a trophy, each of which had earned the title of 1st place.

“This is the first time this has happened,” said Ken Scarberry, Director of Youth Development. “We’ve always had just two winners.

The evening began with 38 students from 38 different schools throughout Solano County. Sixth grader Moses Perez of , sixth grader Madelynn Klein-Courville of , and fifth grader Chase Furman of each competed in the event. Unfortunately, the three students did not advance beyond the second round, and, by the fourth round, only half of the students remained.

Spellers were given words such as "parent," "correct," and "ambition" to begin with. Words became more and more difficult, and by the 4th round the students were spelling words such as "miscellaneous," "cynical," and "quixotic." The contestants gripped their podiums, their clothes and their pens used to write out their words before spelling them for judges. Often times an exhale of relief could be heard when a word was spelled correctly, from the student and the audience. By the 10th go round, seven students remained and were spelling words such as "apiarist," "ubiquitous," and "onomatopoeia."

student Isabella Chloe commended the students for their efforts. A member of her school’s academic decathlon, she decided to come out to support the kids from her city. She said when she was younger she could never have done what  these students have done in front of so many people.

“It takes a lot of nerve for kids to go up and spell words some adults don’t even know,” said Chloe.

Seating at the event was for 300 people, and almost all of the seats were filled. As the number of students began the to dwindle down, so did the audience members. Three hours into the bee, three students from Vallejo and one from Vacaville were spelling the toughest words judges could throw at them, until it was decided to award first place to each of the contestants. Louis Angelo Punzalan of St. Catherine of Siena, Vallejo; Alex Topp of Cooper Elementary, Vacaville; Sarina Chang of Glen Cove Elementary, Vallejo; and Tyrone Austria of Pennycook Elementary, Vallejo.

Only two students, Chang and Austria, will proceed to the California State Elementary Spelling Bee in Stockton on April 16. The two were left only after SCOE decided to amend the rules of the competition and remove aid of scratch paper to the spellers.

Chang and her family were thrilled at her accomplishment. Her first year at the county’s spelling bee, last year she had came in third place at her school’s event.

“I tried harder to earn 1st place at my school (this year),” she said. Chang said she was nervous while up on stage. Now she can rest a bit with until the competition in mid April.

“It actually feels really exciting,” said Chang.