County Spelling Bee Queen Crowned

It started with "thorn" and ended with "paralysis."

When it was all said and done, 102 words were spelled correctly on the afternoon (23 in the incorrect pile) and of those, 14 were perfectly pronounced by Whitewater School's Hannah Hanley who took home the first place trophy at the Phillips County Spelling Bee last Tuesday, a year after taking second place at the annual event.

A total of 25 contestants from Dodson, Malta, Whitewater and Saco Elementary and Middle Schools descended on the Malta High School Auditorium last week to participate in the 41st Annual Phillips County Spelling Bee. Phillips County Superintendent of Schools Darlene Kolczak was the pronouncer and emcee of the event while Jane Knudsen and Amy Schye, of Malta Schools, and Dawn Stenvik of Whitewater Schools were the judges on the day.

The 25 contestants were whittled down to five heading into the seventh round as Jeslyn McCorkle (Malta Elementary), Junior Stiffarm and Emma Cole (Dodson) and Cora LaBrie and Hanley (Whitewater) all advanced. McCorkle, a fifth-grade student, got stumped on the word "affirmation" to fall from the contest (after spelling "garden," "return," "shabby," "Icelandic," "energetic" and "disengage" correctly in the earlier rounds.)

LaBrie, a seventh-grade student, got into round seven by spelling such words as "welcome," "superb," and "infraction" correctly, but was eliminated from the contest after being stumped on the spelling of "correctional."

Cole, a seventh-grade student, was the next to stumble, doing so on the word "vegetation" after spelling her previous six words correctly (dew, compost, village, manure, shortage and practically) to leave three contestants left.

Stiffarm, a fifth grade student and the Dodson Spelling Bee Champ this year, mowed down the words "nearly," "cosmic," "horrid," "slobbery," "balloonist," and "opponent," in the first six rounds and then spelled "defensiveness" correctly in round seven, the first person to get a word right in the round which officially eliminated the students who were errant before him.

Last, but certainly not least, Hanley (an eighth-grade student and this year's Whitewater School spelling bee champion) spelled "Cyclops" correctly and set up a showdown with Stiffarm for the championship.

"One additional rule for the final round is this," Supt. Kolczak announced. "The last person remaining in the bee must correctly spell a word in an additional round to be the champion. If they miss the word in the additional round, all the contestants from the earlier round will be called back to compete."

Stiffarm missed the word "segregation" leaving Hanley with the word "Chesapeake" to take the round. As she got to the 'k' in the word, Hanley paused for 18 seconds before uttering the final 'e" to complete the correct spelling.

"I've seen the word a million times but I just wasn't sure if it had an 'e' or not," Hanley would later say.

Prior to "Chesapeake," Hanley had correctly spelled "thorn," "manners," "shilling," "diagram," "sparsely," "administration" and after spelling "Cyclops," was asked to spell "callous" for the win but inserted an "e" for the "o" to allow the contest to continue.

The two spellers would then progress through four words correctly ("grandiose," "marmalade," "exasperation," and "annoyance" for Stiffarm and "atoll," "exasperation," reprobate," and "conspiracy" for Hanley) before Stiffarm missed on "Hispaniola" and Hanley correctly spelled both "chimpanzee" and "paralysis" to take the crown.

At last year's event, Hanley went home with the second place trophy after getting bumped for misspelling "aperture" (which she spelled correctly during her interview with the PCN on the afternoon.) Hanley, the daughter of Justin and Tracey Hanley, will now move on and represent Phillips County in the State Spelling Bee to be held in Helena, Mont. She said she practiced before the county spelling bee and will continue to study before her trip to state.

"I don't know how I will do at state," Hanley admitted.

Kanyon Stiles, last year's Phillips County Spelling Bee Champ and this year's Malta Middle School bee winner, was unable to defend his title as he was out sick.

Stiffarm, who is the son of Francine KillEagle and Lyle Stiffarm, said he wasn't familiar with the word "Hispaniola" which knocked him from the bee, but said he would likely never forget it now. Stiffarm said he studied the spelling bee packet he was given and that helped with the spelling of "grandiose" and admitted he was nervous the entire time he was on stage.

"I didn't think I would do very well because I am only a fifth grader," he said.

Stiffarm said he has three more shots at winning the Phillips County Spelling Bee.

"Hopefully I can win one someday," he said.

Phillips County Spelling Bee Champions

1977 Debbie Phillips, Dodson

1978 Debbie Phillips, Dodson

1979 Valerie Barton, Saco

1980 Mark French, Malta

1981 Debbie Fahmig, ?

1982 Beth Sandvick, Dodson

1983 Tammie Atnip, Malta

1984 Lexie Smith, Malta

1985 Orrin Burns, Malta

1986 Heather Rust, Malta

1987 Stephanie Simanton, Zortman

1988 John Roberts, Malta

1989 Daniel Low, Malta

1990 Justin Starr, Malta

1991 Toni Hould, Malta

1992 Sarah Durham, Malta

1993 Anna Barthelmess, Malta

1994 Kirk Reichelt, Whitewater

1995 Angela Roberts, Malta

1996 Kirk Reichelt, Whitewater

1997 Rebecca Linn, Malta

1998 Shannon Brady, Malta

1999 Jonnae Lumsden, Whitewater

2000 Nicole Young, Malta

2001 Katie Smith, Malta

2002 Kalvin Reichelt, Whitewater

2003 Reese Kindle, Malta

2004 Tony Ost, Malta

2005 Mark Messerly, Dodson

2006 Kori Kindle, Malta

2007 Kayla Gairrett, Saco

2008 Justin Funk, Saco

2009 Brandon Nicholson, Malta

2010 Blake Sjostrom, Malta

2011 Justin Funk, Saco

2012 Blake Sjostrom, Malta

2013 Isabel Wright, Malta, 2014 Bella Mackey, Malta

2015 Kelbee Denham, Malta

2016 Ben Costin, Malta

2017 Kanyon Stiles, Malta

2018 Hannah Hanley, Whitewater