After 28 rounds and 251 words, Eureka USD 389 crowned eighth grader Sadie Seiter as the 2024 district champion, last Friday, Jan. 19. The district spelling bee went for twodays as 31 spellers embarked on the district bee last Thursday, Jan. 18, at 1:30 p.m. Spellers went eight rounds, but as the end-of-school bell was set to ring, the bee was postponed with seven spellers still vying for the top honor.
Those seven still competing were fourth grader Jace Daily; sixth graders Raegan Ashlock, Bryson Gilbert and Casen Wamsher; seventh graders McKenna McDonald and Rose Larsen and eighth grader Seiter. The ninth round, or the first one on Friday, proved challenging as five of the seven misspelled their words to leave Seiter and Larsen in the contest. The next 18 rounds saw Seiter and Larsen go word for word. Both misspelled words along the way, but it was Seiter who would spell her word correctly in the 27th round and again in the 28th round to be crowed the spelling bee champion. Seiter correctly spelled: “snail,” “spring,” “drooped,” “able,” “nighttime,” “cress,” “important,” “disdain,” “composition,” “forearms,” “recital,” “intertwine,” “crookedly,” “ambush,” “precious,” “devotion,” “saucer,” “submerged,” “diamond,” “hobbit,” “stitchery,” “deliberately,” “fowl,” spacious,” “ourselves,” and “sacred.”
