After 10 rounds, fourth-grader Willa Stuart took the top prize at the Haines School Spelling Bee Friday, correctly spelling “concussion” to qualify for the state bee in Anchorage.

Six spellers started the bee. With two gone by the second round, the top four spellers – Stuart, Logan Borcik, Mackenzy Dryden and Anica Tipkemper – battled for four more rounds until Tipkemper went out on the word “opinionated.”

In the same round, Borcik had to spell “austere.”

“I completely guessed on austere,” Borcik said, because of Fontenot’s pronunciation, which he said sounded to him like “aust-air.”

Borcik finished in second place after misspelling “legitimately” in round 10.

Misspelled words that tripped up fourth graders Stacie Wallers and Ila Nettleton were “trance” and “biology,” respectively.

Sixth-grader Dryden finished third, the same place she took in last year’s bee. She stumbled on “insulin,” replacing the ‘s’ with a ‘c’ in round nine.

Both the first- and second-place finishers said they practiced spelling with their parents from the list of words provided as study material.

Stuart said when she and her mom practiced, she spelled the word “conflagration” wrong. It was one of the last words on the list before the difficulty jumped to an eighth-grade level. Spelling it correctly led her into the tenth round.

Both participants were nervous. Borcik said: “My legs and my hands were shaking a bunch uncontrollably.”

The competitors spelled in front of a full crowd in the elementary school gym. Nelle Jurgeleit-Greene and Leigh Horner judged the event.

The bee was Stuart’s second. She jumped up and down in excitement when she greeted her family in the audience, asking to get the state list of words the same night to start practicing right away.

Principal Rene Martin said the top spellers also won gift certificates to the Babbling Book.

Fifth-grader Raven Hotch won the Klukwan School spelling bee, also held on Friday.

Hotch won on the word “twine.”

Eight students in grades 2-8 participated in the Klukwan bee, said teacher Jessica Tipkemper.

Alaska’s state bee starts March 30 in Anchorage.

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