Another Battle Royale
Eli Beck has been in the San Juan School District Spelling Bee five times. He started his spelling bee winning when he placed third in the district spelling bee as a fourth grader. He then earned runner-up honors in his fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade years. All four of these second place finishes were to fellow Albert R. Lyman Middle School classmate; Kira Simpson. Kira won the Southeast Region Spelling Bee in 2009 which earned her a trip to Washington D.C. to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Each school in the Carbon, Emery, Grand, San Juan and Pinnacle Academy School Districts hold school spelling bees each year. Each school has the opportunity to send their three top spellers to the District Spelling Bee of their respective districts. From there, the top three spellers from each district is invited to attend the Southeast Regional Spelling Bee. This year San Juan School District sent two students from Albert R, Lyman Middle School and one student from Blanding Elementary School. Kira Simpson was crowned the San Juan School District Spelling Bee Champion for the fifth straight year. Eli Beck was the district runner-up and Jared Ward was the district third place winner.
This year’s Region Bee proved to be a great one! There were 15 spellers representing the above mentioned districts. The field wasn’t whittled down to a final five until round twenty. There were three spellers remaining clear up until the thirtieth round. From there, Kira and Eli battled it out once again. They went back and forth for twenty more rounds! In round number forty-nine, Kira was given the word “uppitiness.” (When you type this word into a Microsoft Word Document, it comes up with a red line under it, meaning that it is spelled incorrectly. However, there are no suggestions for correcting it.) The definition of this word; putting on or marked by airs of superiority. Kira was unable to spell it correctly. This opened the door for Eli for the first time ever! Eli had to spell his word correctly in round forty-nine and if successful would have to spell the anticipated championship word in round fifty for the win. In round forty-nine Eli was given the word; “heron.” He spelled it correctly! The anticipated championship word in round fifty was; “aptitude.” The tension in the air was thick. These two outstanding students at outlasted thirteen other competitors and had battled one-on-one for twenty rounds! They had been here before. In fact they had ended over ten other spelling bees (school, district and region) with just the two of them battling it out for the victory. In each of the previous spelling bees the outcome was the same, Kira Simpson Champion and Eli Beck Runner-up. Would this be Eli’s big moment? YES! Eli Beck, successfully spelled the anticipated championship word and after five years was finally crowned the Southeast Regional Spelling Bee Champion!
As Eli spelled his final word and the pronouncer announced; “that is correct,” the smile crept across Eli’s face and seemed to be a mile wide. Kira, a champion multiple times over immediately reached out her hand and congratulated Eli with a warm smile. “I think that Kira was as excited for Eli as anyone:” said Principal, Chas DeWitt. “She is an outstanding girl! She was very gracious in her defeat. In fact I asked her if she was a little disappointed and she didn’t hesitate at all to tell me that she wasn’t. We really have outstanding students in our community. Kira, Eli and Jared are all proof of that. They congratulated each other and were genuinely happy for Eli.” Eli will be heading to Washington D. C. to represent Albert R. Lyman Middle School, the San Juan School District and the entire state of Utah at the Scripps National Spelling Bee! Good Luck!
Winners of the San Juan School District Spelling Bee 5th Place – Emma Pratchen , 2nd Place – Eli Beck and the Champion – Kira Simpson.
The Region Bee will be held on March 11, 2010 at 1:00pm at Green River High School.
Winners of the Albert R. Lyman Middle School Spelling Bee are (from left to right) 3rd Place – Emma Pratchen (15), 2nd Place – Eli Beck (27) and the Champion – Kira Simpson (7).
Pictured on the front row from left to right are; Emma Pratchen, Taylor Kartchner, Billy Flannery, Tirich Garner, Tryston Kartchner, Chase Palmer, Jacob Blake, Sharla Yanito, Kira Simpson, Chad Singer, Heidi Hiatt, Geeshakaa Miles, Jonathon Smith, Michael Blake and Justin Hutchins. Pictured on the back row from left to right are; Logan Pemberton, Brandon Johnstun, Brittney Macdonald, Jonathan Brewer, Koy Nielson, Spencer Beck, Nizhoni Yazzie, Jonathan Dixon, Metahna Parker, Cedric Mose, Joshua Hunt, Eli Beck, Brianna Pugh, Presley Mainord, Tryran Jones, Braxton Brown, Hannah Parker, Davin Lyman and Kade Palmer.
The spelling bee at Albert R. Lyman Middle School has become more and more competetive each year. This year there were 34 students in the sixth, seventh and eightth grades who participated in the spelling bee. Participants from the eighthe grade included; Michael Blake, Kira Simpson, Spencer Beck, Metahna Parker, Eli Beck, Jonathan Smith, Presley Mainord, Justin Hutchins, Tryston Kartchner, Brandon Johnstun, Taylor Kartchner, Koy Nielson, Heidi Hiatt, Brittney Macdonald, Tirich Garner, Tyran Jones, Cedric Mose and Chad Singer. Participants from the seventh grade included; Jacob Blake, Braxton Brown, Geeshkaa Miles, Hannah Parker, Chase Palmer, Logan Pemberton, Kade Palmer, Davin Lyman and Brianna Pugh. Participants from the sixth grade included; Emma Pratchen, Billy Flannery, Jonathan Dixon, Jonathan Brewer, Joshua Hunt, Sharla Yanito and Nizhoni Yazzie.
This years’ spelling bee was almost total “dejavu” as Kira Simpson edged out Eli Beck for the second year in a row. Sixth grader, Emma Pratchen took third place. Last year Kira also won both the San Juan School District Spelling Bee as well as the Southeast Region Spelling Bee. Last May, Kira had the opportunity of a life-time as she represented not only Albert R. Lyman Middle School but the entire state of Utah at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Students were given a list of 225 words to study for the school spelling bee. “It was quite obvious that a number of students took this years’ competition seriously; said Chas DeWitt, Principal. There were still more than 15 participants left going into the sixth round. The seventh round began with new words which the students hadn’t had the opportunity to study for. As the rounds progress, the words become increasingly more difficult. The two final spellers battled it out through several rounds before Eli finally misspelled a word. Simpson correctly spelled the word “ecclesiastical” to capture the title. Emma was presented with a Visa Debit Card with a $10 value, Eli received a Visa Debit Card with a $15 value and Kira received a Visa Debit Card with a $25 value.
On Tuesday, February 16th, the San Juan School District Spelling Bee will be held at San Juan High School at 9:00am. Spellers from across the district will gather at SJHS in hopes that they will be one of the top three spellers from our ditrict. The winners will then have the oportunity to participate at the Southeast Region Spelling Bee on March 11, 2010 held at Green River High School.