Region Spelling Bee Hosted in Green River

Press release from the Southeast Education Service Center

-March 8, 2016-

James Bryner, 8^th grader from Mont Harmon Middle School in Carbon District, once again earned the designation as top speller after a competitive twenty-five rounds in the annual Southeast Educational Service Center Regional Spelling Bee. As winner last year James competed at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D. C.  He prepared for this year’s Bee by studying thousands of words, hoping to take top honors again for his last appearance at the Region Bee. James began the bee, correctly spelling words such as: glitz, totem, angelic, holster, windily, access, and nelma. Some of his other words included: herbivore, melancholy, Mikado, bellicose, gauche, bezoar, and terrapin.

Second place speller Jordan Clinger, 7^th grader from ARL Middle School in Blanding, gave James quite a run for his money as they went head to head for 8 rounds.  Jordan misspelled “ameliorate.” At this point James correctly spelled “Fahrenheit” and finally the championship word “efficacy.”

A tie was declared for 3^rd place between Adriana Johnson, Blanding Elementary 5^th grader and Kaia Jay, 8^th grader from ARL Middle, both from San Juan School District.

Sponsored by the Southeast Education Service Center, this year’s Region Bee was held at Green River High.  Thanks to Rachel Lund from USU Eastern, who was this year’s pronouncer.  Theresa Wilson and Johnna Boyack served as judges. The Region Bee is a preliminary competition in the Scripps National Spelling Bee held during Bee Week May 22–May 27, 2016 in Washington D.C.

As first place speller, James received Webster’s 3^rd International Dictionary, 2016 United States Mint Proof Set donated by Mr. Jay Sugarman in honor of his father, a one-year subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica Online and an all-expense paid trip for James and chaperone to attend the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Second and third place spellers received a $25 Amazon Gift card donated by SESC.

The top three District spellers, plus Pinnacle Academy, grades 4 through 8 advanced to the Region Bee from bees held in their local schools and districts earlier this year.

Spellers for Grand District came from Grand Middle School: Jaidyn Thomas, 8^th, Emma Millis, 8^th, and Miranda Corbin, 8^th.

Emery District sent Jace Jorgensen, 8^th San Rafael Jr., Jayce Rudd, 8^th Canyon View Jr., and Joey Leonard, 4^th  Castle Dale Elementary.

Competing from Carbon District were James Bryner, 8^th Mont Harmon Middle, Katelynn Vasquez, 8^th Helper Middle, and Lizzy Blackburn, 5^th Creekview Elementary.

San Juan District spellers were Jordan Clinger, 7^th and Kaia Jay 8^th,  ARL Middle; Adriana Johnson, 5^th Blanding Elementary.

The Pinnacle Academy participant was Hadley Dunn, 7^th grade.  (Alyssa MacDonald, 7^th, and Addison Christensen, 5^th were unable to attend.)

The Scripps Bee is the nation’s largest and longest-running educational promotion, administered on a not-for-profit basis by The E.W. Scripps Company and Kindle, which has now joined as presenting sponsor. The Bee’s purpose is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives.

Nine newspapers collaborated to start the National Spelling Bee in 1925. In 1941, Scripps took over sponsorship of the National Spelling Bee. However, there was no Scripps National Spelling Bee during the war years of 1943–45. Five times in the history of the Scripps Bee co-winners were announced. In 2014 Sriram Hathwar, New York, and Ansun Sujoe, Ft. Worth, spelled “feuilleton” and “stichomythia.” These were the first co-winners since 1962. Amazingly in 2015, Vanya Shivashankar, Kansas, and Gokul Venkatachalam, Missouri, were named cowinners spelling “scherenschnitte” and “nunatak.”

Congratulations to all those spellers who competed and best wishes to James on his second trip to compete in the National Spelling this year!