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By Mike Bodine
Register Staff
12-10-2009 After more than a solid hour of letters and words, a Bishop eighth-grader correctly spelled “spelunker” to win the 34th Annual Inyo County Spelling Bee.
For the second year in a row, Kevin Sprague from Bishop’s Home Street Middle School walked away with the first-place trophy for the Bee in the elementary school division. Ashley Chapeliere from Lone Pine High School won first place in the high school division, correctly spelling “plenipotentiary.”
Chapeliere took back the trophy for Lone Pine from last year’s winner, Bishop’s Karina Morales, who placed second this year. Morales has represented Inyo for four years at the statewide spelling bee championships
Sprague said he wanted to thank his parents and family for helping him practice. He attributes his spelling prowess to memorization.
When asked if he had any advice for aspiring spelling bee champions, he said, “Make sure you get the full list of words. Last year I didn’t get the full list” – not that it slowed Sprague down any last year.
There were 18 elementary students from throughout the county vying for bragging rights and a trophy by tackling a variety of words, including “succumb,” “atrophy” and “inertia.”
The looks on the spellers’ faces said it all. Some would squirm around and be genuinely surprised when they spelled the word correctly. There were also the über-confident kids, loud and robust, who didn’t ask for a definition or write it down, but just blurted out the correct spelling.
The words were many, but only five contestants were eliminated in the first hour of the elementary bee.
After the set list of words had been completed, the words were chosen randomly from lists of words the kids hadn’t practiced. With this, the competitors started dropping out quickly.
The last four cool kids who seemed unfazed by the earlier rounds were starting to show their fear. There was plenty of giggling, nail biting and nervous chatter as each would blush after each round of applause.
Many of the spellers worked with peers to prepare for the county meet. Pine Street School student-coach Diana Bodine could be heard spelling the word along with her partner in the contest, Carolyn Hagopian. Hagopian took fifth place at the competition, which many considered incredibly impressive considering she was competing with spellers four years her senior.
Other winners for the high school division include third-place winners Elizabeth Nunez and Evelen Nunez of Owens Valley and fourth- place winners Chelsea Chapeliere of Lone Pine and Sheyanne Wilder of Owens Valley.
Other high school contestants included: Chynna Tash from Big Pine; Kelly Green, Sheyanne Wilder and Yashmeeta Sharma from Owens Valley; Michael Bunn, Navjot Singh and Paul Lucia III from Lone Pine; and Jesus Beltran, Allison Lewis, Jamie Clignett and Macy Davis from Bishop High.
For the elementary and middle school competition, Sprague took first, Olivia Grah of Round Valley took second, Tenaya Morelock of Round Valley took third, Matthew Ono of Home Street took fourth and three students tied for fifth place: Carolyn Hagopian and Jimmy Tamasek of Pine Street and Logan Stephenson of Round Valley.
The other elementary/middle school contestants included: Amelia Yarborough and Kasey Kolthoff from Round Valley; Abby Southey, Amanda Barlese, Lizeth Serna and Autumn Wilder from Lo-Inyo; Kaity Barlow (ninth grade, BPHS), Audrey Bear, Hannah Murray, Brian Hambleton, Austin Miller and Makenzie Brown from Big Pine; and Max Taylor and Lauren Saunders (ninth grade, BUHS) from Pine/Home Street.
Inyo County Superintendent Terry McAteer wanted to give special thanks to the teacher-coaches, including Lisa Shearer, Jeff Putman, Karyn Helfrich-Holland, Tim Steele, Jeri Ennis, Bob Heist, Harold McDonald and Brenda Mack, who spent many hours working with their students.
The Spelling Bee was coordinated by Sandy Smith, with assistance from Sophie Kenn and Rose Sabo. Gary Hampton and Ed Harry managed the audio equipment and set-up at the office of Inyo County Superintendent of Schools.
Special recognition was given to Dave Balcom, publisher of The Inyo Register, who acted as Spell Master. The competition was judged by Alden Nash, Pete Korngiebel and Lynn Lamb. Benett Kessler was the pronouncer for the competitions.
Several local businesses also donated time and prizes to the competition.
For more information, contact Pamela Jones or Sandy Smith at (760) 873-3262 ext. 406.
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