Siewing snags Spelling Bee Crown

A total of 28 local students converged in Malta High School's auditorium last Wednesday afternoon, each hoping to go home with this year's Phillips County Spelling Bee championship trophy and when the event wrapped up, Malta Middle School's Jonathan Siewing had earned the 2019 crown.

Siewing, the son of Leona and Paul Siewing, is an eighth-grade student at MES, correctly spelled "Solomon" and "hypothesis" correctly in the 10th round of the event as he faced-off with Dodson Elementary School's Junior Stiffarm in the championship round.

"I have only ever used (hypothesis) in a sentence a few times and never (Solomon)," Siewing admitted after the event. "I think I did pretty good and I was pretty confident."

Siewing, in his last year of eligibility for the Phillips County Spelling Bee, said this year was the first he had ever qualified for the event. Siewing said he figured he would finish in the top five for the day after winning the MES Spelling Bee earlier in the month and attributes practice for his success.

"I just practiced and wrote a lot of words and that really helped me out," he said. With the win, Siewing will advance to the Montana State Spelling Bee.

"Amethyst was probably the hardest word I had today. I hope I do well at state and I will practice," he concluded.

Stiffarm, a second grade student at Dodson, said he had never heard many of the words he was asked to spell in the later rounds of the competition including the word "cinnabar" - a bright red mineral consisting of mercury sulfide - which knocked him from the contest and earned him his second, second place trophy in the last two years at the spelling bee.

"I will just have to practice more and do better next year," Stiffarm said.

Dodson School contestants for the day were;Stiffarm (first in the Dodson Bee), Jeremiah Henry, Alexis IronBear, Little Shield Cole, Kataya Flansburg, and Mason LoneBear was the school's alternate.

East Malta Colony School contestants for the day were, Gavin Hofer, Jacob Hofer, and Laurie Hofer.

Malta Elementary School contestants for the day were Kaille Davis (MES bee champ), Layla Messerly, Morgan McEwen, Michael Mayer, and Lola Snell and the alternates were Trooper Stiles and Straud Sims.

Malta Middle School contestants for the day were Jonathan Siewing (MMS champ), Branton Moore, Brylee French, Madelyn Ohl, Gavin Slade and alternates were Aubrey Werk, and Izzie Hallenberg.

Saco School contestants for the day were Teagan Erickson (Saco Schools champ), Abby Yeska, Josie Brown, Carter Pippin, Marshall Caves and the alternates were Laynee Simpson and Blaine Downing.

Whitewater School contestants for the day were; Kendall Scheffelmear (first in the Whitewater Bee), Harmony Wood, Austin Hanley, Kendra Cummings, Sommer Green, and alternates were Kora LaBrie and Kennedy Simonson.

A total of 45 out of 76 words were spelled correctly on the afternoon by the competitors and Dodson's Henry finished in third place, going out in the fifth round, which led to Siewing and Stiffarm battling for the first place trophy for five rounds.

Phillips County Spelling Bee Champions Since 1977

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

1989 Daniel Low, Malta

1988 John Roberts, 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

2019 Jonathan Siewing, Malta