Community

In a Claremont spelling bee, there’s no bluffing

By GLYNIS HART
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CLAREMONT — Students at Bluff Elementary School sat quietly on the gym floor, watching 12 fourth and fifth graders slowly spell words aloud at the annual spelling bee Tuesday afternoon. Last year’s champion, Lily Eagan, fell in the final round to fourth grader Kaeden Ryan. Ryan will go on to represent Bluff at the statewide spelling bee in Concord to be held in a few weeks. 

The contestants had all competed against their classmates in previous rounds, so the 12 students were the best spellers in the school. The Scripps Spelling Bee vocabulary included words students might be unfamiliar with, like “guidance,” long words like “captivity” and “jerkily” and words that had homonyms, like “groan.” 

The national spelling bee began in 1925, and culminates in the National Scripps Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. This year, 11 million students will participate in the bee. 

Teacher Mark Landry said all the kids studied hard and did a great job. 

The contestants were: Lily Eagan, Kaeden Ryan, Nicole Bouchard, Teegan Heath, Jayden Herrell, Justin McGuire, Jayden Hunt, Maddie Jervis, Davin Boehle, Olivia Sohngen, Caitlin Marshall, and Zaiden Daniels.

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