Last Tuesday, expert spellers from the Elementary School and Junior High met in the high school gym to compete in the annual UCSD Spelling Bee.
The judges were Lauren Adams, Billie Jo Gehring, and Danielle Whittern. Mary Heimes was the pronouncer. Fifth grade teacher Josh Good organized the bee and read the spelling bee rules to the participants.
There were 12 participants ranging from 3rd grade to 8th grade. The participants were: 3rd Grade: Ian Gray, and Alex Fernandez. 4th Grade: Mylanie Ho, and Kristal Tacata. 5th Grade: Vanessa Go, and Sophitia LaVoy 6th Grade: Justin Agbayani, and Evi Faailoga. 7th Grade: Aldrin Tan, and Justine Ilad. 8th grade: Kevin Tran, and Bruce Tan. All participants did really well and made it three rounds before the first few were eliminated.
Justine Ilad and Kevin Tran made it eight rounds, at which time Justine misspelled the word “garland”. Kevin had to correctly spell the next word to bring home the win. He did, spelling “winced”.
“I was kind of nervous. I was in the geography bee two years ago, so I kind of knew what it felt like,” said Kevin when I asked how he felt on stage. “I knew the words so I didn’t doubt myself.”
Kevin will advance to the state spelling bee in Anchorage on March 30th. If you see him, be sure to wish him luck!
