BEDFORD – The 49th annual Lawrence County Spelling Bee, coordinated by 1340 WBIW, concluded on Tuesday with one speller remaining to claim the champion title; that was Needmore sixth grader Amelia Burgess.
Burgess outlasted nine other competitors through seven rounds, sealing her win by correctly spelling infraction.
“I feel happy that I won,” she said.
Her win didn’t come without a few scares from difficult words. One of the words Burgess spelled correctly that she said she felt nervous about was administration.
“Because I didn’t know if it was an E or not,” she said
In her victory, Burgess claimed a pizza party from Papa John’s Pizza of Bedford for her homeroom class, a trophy and a $100 cash prize, provided by Bedford Federal Savings Bank. She had already planned what she would spend her earnings on.
“Cheetos. Hot Cheetos,” Burgess said.
The event came down to the final two, which were Burgess and Brooke Barr, a seventh grader at St. Vincent de Paul. Unfortunately for Barr, she was eliminated after she misspelled scenery in round seven.
The third place finisher was determined by a Spell-Down between three contestants; Demetrious Collins, eighth grade at Bedford Middle School, Chloe Collins, seventh grade at Oolitic and Kirra Morris, fifth grade at Parkview and the winner of Day One of the spelling bee.
Chloe Collins was eliminated after four rounds, misspelling azalea, leaving it to Demetrious Collins and Morris.
In the next round, Morris misspelled calculus and Demetrious Collins spelled pronto correctly, cementing him as the third-place finisher.
Full list of participants
- Paige Voigtschild, eighth grade – Homeschool
- Brooke Barr, seventh grade – St. Vincent de Paul
- Demetrius Collins, eighth grade – Bedford Middle School
- Eyan Gilstrap, eighth grade – Mitchell Junior High School
- Amelia Burgess, sixth grade – Needmore
- Chloe Collins, seventh grade – Oolitic
- Jaxon Carter, sixth grade, Parkview
- Lexi Ritter, sixth grade – Shawswick (qualified but did not attend)
- Kylar Hughes, sixth grade – LCIS
- Thomas Harper, sixth grade – Lincoln (qualified but did not attend)
- Kirra Morris, fifth grade, Parkview
Not pictured: Lexi Ritter, sixth grade at Shawswick, and Thomas Harper, sixth grade at Lincoln.
