Spelling bee win for ARL

Grange Simpson is the winner of the regional spelling and earns a trip to the national spelling bee. With the win, Simpson retains Albert R. Lyman (ARL) Middle School’s grip on the regional spelling bee crown.
A student from ARL has been the regional winner for seven years in a row.
The Southeast Education Service Center presented the regional spelling bee on March 4 at Green River High School.
Winning spellers from Emery, Grand, San Juan and Carbon counties participated in the event.
The winner of the event receives an all expense paid trip for two to Bee Week in Washington, DC in May.
JJ Grant from the Southeast Education Service Center welcomed everyone. Chas DeWitt, from the San Juan School District, was the pronouncer for the event.
Words for the spelling bee come from the Merriam Webster Dictionary.
Helping with the event were Teresa Wilson, Johna and Cynthia Grant.
The spelling bee is operated in rounds. If a speller misses a word they were to remain on stage until everyone in that round has a chance to spell a word.
Spellers are not asked to spell a word someone else misspells. After the rules were reviewed, the spelling began.
Local spellers from the San Juan School District include spellers included Grange Simpson and Jessica Walker, eighth grade students from ARL Middle School, and Aspen English, a seventh grade student from Monticello High School.
Spellers from the Carbon School District are Victoria Nelson, and Mikayla Taggart.
Emery County spellers are Tiana Jensen, Douglas Maughan, and Airlyn Allred.
Grand County spellers are Teddy and Kevin Park, and Miranda Corbin.
Pinnacle Academy students include JR Jensen, Karely Urrutia and Maylee Gregersen.
First round words included: hamster, barley, average, bevel, mermaid, polka, kipper, sumo, mascot, ravel, errand, humble and caboose.
The competition moved to the second round with ambulance, transect, banders, diorama, powwow, hurdle, manicure, hearth, fiesta, gradient, broadleaf, jovial, dracula, gunnysack.
Round three included: rupee, malaria, hustings, pandit, strategy, graffiti, foliate, haiku, julep, crusoe, herbivore, apathy, wiseacre and chalupa.
Round four words included: palette, automaton, saffron, portfolio, medic, anchovy, kabuki, toucan, corporal and frankenstein.
Round five moved to words like rouge, sadilla, orthodox, contiguous, gondola, plausible, flotilla and topography.
Round six, seven and eight words: crescendo, tortoni, nebbish, spinet, monotonous, protagonist, sashay, bolero, nabob, piazza, infinitesimal, langlauf, recidivism, nemesis, and verboten.
Round nine and ten: commiserate, mercerize, conquistador, spiel, meiji, eocene, skipperkey, prabhu.
Teddy Park and Victoria Nelson faced off for third place, both missing a word in the same round. Teddy took third place. After third place was decided, then Kevin Park and Grange Simpson were the only two spellers left.
Grange went on to spell malcontent and his championship word was pentagon. This placed Grange Simpson first and Kevin Park second. Simpson will go to Washington DC to represent southeastern Utah at the Scripps National spelling bee.