A-C-C-O-M-P-A-N-I-M-E-N-T
M-O-S-Q-U-I-T-O
Those are the words that landed sixth-grader Meg Detwiler first place in the Lyon County Spelling Bee Friday at Sacred Heart Parish Hall. Meg will be attending the regional spelling bee in Topeka along with second-place winner, eighth-grader Gabriel O’Connor.
To be declared the winner of the Lyon County Spelling Bee, Meg had to spell the word that Gabriel, a student at Neosho Rapids Junior High School, missed, ‘accompaniment,’ and spell another word, ‘mosquito.’ She spelled both correctly to take this year’s title. Last year’s winner was Nishat Yasmin of Emporia Middle School. Nishat won on the word ‘quotation.’
Meg, a student at Lowther North Intermediate School, won this year’s bee on the 18th round — one more round than Nishat played last year. This year’s spelling bee was more than two hours long. There were 39 spellers in this year’s bee. Before the bee got started, the spellers were granted a practice round. Even with the practice round, it was evident that several spellers were nervous as feet shuffled, hands shook and spellers looked nervously around.
Round 1 eliminated six spellers; Round 2, four spellers; Round 3, four spellers; Round 4, three spellers; Round 5, three spellers; Round 6, four spellers; Round 7, two spellers; Round 8, one speller; Round 9, four spellers; none in Rounds 10 and 11; Round 12, three spellers; Round 13, one speller; and none in Rounds 15-17. Round 18 determined the winner.
By Round 5, nerves were getting even more tense as more feet started tapping and more spellers were hesitant when they spelled their words. The competition was heating up by Round 10, when there were only six spellers left. Round 13 saw a word that even evoked audience reaction — ‘smorgasbord.’ Smorgasbord eliminated Sydney DeLong of Reading Elementary School from the competition. Sydney captured third place.
When only Meg and Gabriel were left, the two went five rounds taking their turns at the microphone. Both spellers demonstrated confidence as they stepped up to the microphone and breathed a sigh of relief when they spelled their words correctly.
When Gabriel missed on the word ‘accompaniment,’ it was up to Meg to spell that word and another word correctly. A smile flashed on her face as she spelled mosquito to become the top speller in Lyon County. She said she placed seventh in last year’s spelling bee.
Meg said she spent the last couple of days studying last year’s word list and studying out of a book she got from the library. She spent her mornings studying with her mom, and she also studied with her grandmother.
Meg, the daughter of Todd and Cindy Detwiler, said she knew she had competition with Gabriel.
“I could tell that Gabriel was a good speller,” she said after the competition.
Meg added that she kept thinking if Gabriel missed his word, she would have to spell that one right and another one. Meg was surprised when she won.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I had a lot of close calls where I didn’t know the word. I had to sound it out.”
Gabriel, the son of Evelyne and John O’Connor, said he spent the past two days studying for the spelling bee. He studied on the Scripps site and also the 2008 word list.
“I was really, really happy I got second,” Gabriel said, adding that he knew he had spelled his last word wrong.