“Fraulein” wins spelling bee

Twenty-one spellers from throughout the San Juan School District battled through 13 rounds on February 23 before Adriana Johnson, a sixth grade student at Albert R Lyman Middle School in Blanding, was named at the 2017 District Spelling Bee Champion.
Johnson earned the championship title by correctly spelling a host of words thrown her way. The final word, which clinched the win, is “fraulein.”
She also correctly spelled words such as “gladiatorial”, “muskrat”, “harmonica”, “fatigue”, “lucid”, “enchilada”, “tantalize”, “arsenal”, “philanthropy”, “bolivar”, “einkorn”, and “rendezvous”.
Second place goes to the 2016 champion, Jordan Clinger, who is an eighth grade student at ARL Middle School.
Clinger tripped up on “paradigm” after breezing through “oracle”, “trek”, “sultan”, “hyphen”, “graffiti”, “pundit”, “rotunda”, “cavalry”, “precipice”, “amicable” and “marzipan”.
Third place goes to Cedar English, an eighth grade student at Monticello High School.
Cedar correctly spelled “petrifying”, “tornado”, “crescent”, “antibiotic”, “sierra”, “credible”, “adamant”, “amnesia”, “perennial” and “egalitarian” before tripping up on “lederhosen”.
The top three spellers advance to the regional spelling bee, which will include spellers from San Juan, Grand, Emery and Carbon counties.
The winner of that competition will advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, held each June in Washington, D.C. In recent years, the San Juan School District has sent numerous spellers all the way to the competition in Washington D.C.
In the battle for fourth place, two students advanced to the sixth round of the district spelling bee before meeting their spelling match. They are Khiara Kinsel of Whitehorse High School and Anthony Done of Blanding Elementary School.
Blaire Weldon of Bluff Elementary is sixth. Four students tied for seventh place, including Dylan James of Tse’bii’nidzisgai Elementary School, Claiyisha Smith of Whitehorse High School and two students from Blanding Elementary School, Melody Crippen and Nathan Redd.
Other students who did well in their school competition and advanced to the district competition include Harley Anderson, Cambree Chamberlain, Lashantee Chico, Spencer Gosney, Rylee Begay, Curtis Bunker, Taw Robinson, Taeryn Bailey, Caroline Crippen, Braylee Freestone, and Elijah Burke.