Hot Springs student wins county bee

The Courthouse in Thompson Falls was abuzz with spellers from around the county who gathered to compete in the 36th Annual Sanders County Spelling Bee last Friday. First Security Bank, a sponsor of the spelling bee, provides winners with gift certificates from Barnes and Noble. The Sanders County Ledger, the other sponsor of the spelling bee, provides trophies for first, second and third place winners.

Ledger Publisher and bee director Annie Wooden introduced Jeff Wheeler as this year's pronouncer as well as Joanne Burk, Michael Scharfe and Karen Dwyer as the judges. Audience members filed into the courtroom to watch 19 spellers compete for first place. With a "good luck" send off from Wooden, students were allowed to run through one practice round before the official spelling bee kicked off.

Hot Springs sixth grader Elizabeth Knudsen faced some challenging words such as, "vesuvian" and "trilby", but it was the word "Alhambra" that took her to the top with the challenge word "water" that secured her first place in the county spelling bee.

When asked, Knudsen said without a doubt she already knew how to spell the word "Alhambra" but she did have to double check with the pronouncer after hearing her challenge word. "I wasn't sure if I heard him correctly when he said the word 'water,'" she excitedly said after the spelling bee.

Ziah Hensrude, a sixth grader from Hot Springs took home second place and Avalynn Grimm, a seventh grader from Noxon took home third place. Knudsen will head to Bozeman on March 11 to compete in the Treasure State Spelling Bee.

"I'm always amazed at the spelling skills of our local students," Wooden said. "There are words that I don't even know. It's hard to get up there and spell in front of judges and an audience, and the kids did so great. One thing I noticed this year is how encouraging the students were of each other, even of students from other schools. It was awesome to see that."

The Ledger and First Security Bank are the longest private sponsors of a county bee in Montana. Wooden says she is proud of both companies for continuing that tradition.

Contestants in the spelling bee included:

Thompson Falls: Allan McGann, sixth grade

Plains: Ginger Nestor, fifth grade; Briauna Kulawinski, sixth grade; Ashley Ferlan, eighth grade

Hot Springs: Georgia Suess, fourth grade; Elizabeth Knudsen, sixth grade; Ziah Hensrude, sixth grade; Daniel Slonaker, eighth grade

Trout Creek: Damion Conley, fourth grade; Eithan Chambers, seventh grade; Kolter Marjerrison, seventh grade; Gavin Todd, eighth grade

Noxon: Brynn Sherrill, fourth grade; Brielle MacArthur, fifth grade; Avalynn Grimm, seventh grade; Jett Irgens, seventh grade

Dixon: Sonny Matt, sixth grade; Lucy Metcalf, seventh grade; Dailen Nault, eighth grade; Jordan Boye, eighth grade