Haines Wins County Bee After 20 RoundsTwo Milford School girls battled for the 2011 Kosciusko County Spelling Bee championship Thursday night, with a case of the nerves taking the contest into 20 rounds.
A break to cool off after the 18th round helped sixth-grader Hannah Haines heat up to take the county spelling bee title with the word "geothermal" in round 20.
Prior to the championship spell off, eighth-grader Catherine Yankosky beat out Lakeview Middle School's Evie Daggett and Edgewood's Drew Tomasik, both also in the eighth grade, for the seventh- and eighth-grade division title. Yankosky won her division after spelling "hermetically" and "effulgent" correctly in just five rounds.
Catherine is the daughter of David and Deborah Yankosky.
Tuesday night, Hannah, the daughter of Brian and Vicki Haines, had beaten out 17 other fifth- and sixth-graders for that division's title and to move on to Thursday night's championship bout.
But from the start of the championship contest, the two girls weren't coming up with the correct spellings.
In round one, Haines misspelled "criterion" and Yankosky misspelled "viceroy". Round after round, the girls continued to misspell words like "boulevard," "charismatic", "cholesterol", "madrigal" and "memorabilia".
Seeing the girls were on edge, a five-minute break was taken.
When the spelling contest resumed, in round 19, Haines spelled "magnolia" right, but Yankosky misspelled "synonym". Haines then was given and correctly spelled "geothermal" for the win.
For winning their grade division bees, Haines and Yankosky both will each receive a $2,500 Richard R. Long Scholarship. The scholarship is given in recognition of Long's many years of service to the children, teachers and parents of North Webster School, and in honor of his work for the International Palace of Sports, now known as the Shoop Sports and Youth Foundation. The Shoop Foundation funds the spelling bee scholarships to help provide future higher education for the bee winners.
As the county spelling bee champion, Haines advances to the regional spelling bee presented by the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. If, for some reason, Haines can not make the bee, Yankosky is the alternate. The regional bee is March 12 at 10 a.m. at the Rhinehart Music Theater's Auer Auditorium on the campus of IPFW, Coliseum Boulevard, Fort Wayne. The bee will be telecast on PBS Channel 39. The winner of the regional bee will advance to the national Scripps Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in May.
Akron Elementary School Principal Blaine Conley coordinated the 2010 and 2011 spelling bees. Judges for the 2011 bee included Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. teachers Abby Turner, Kristen Horrell, Jon Ocock and REMC Communications Specialist Doris Lemert. The pronouncer for the bee this year was Dr. Paulette Sauders, Grace College.
Kosciusko REMC is the presenting sponsor and host for the 2011 Kosciusko County Spelling Bee. KREMC, in conjunction with other Touchstone Energy® cooperatives, also sponsors the regional spelling bee. Lemert also will be one of the judges at the regional bee.
