Out of a field of 48 students, four received top honors following the Nye County School District’s 2017 Spelling Bee at Pahrump Valley High School on Feb. 7.
The event pitted students in Pahrump’s four elementary schools, from kindergarten to the fifth grade, in two categories.
Trophies from the K-2 Bee competition were awarded to Floyd Elementary School’s second-grade winner Samson Wagner, who edged out J.G. Johnson’s Kiana Reynolds, also a second grader.
Wagner was tasked with spelling Metcalf’s misspelled word “esteem,” then followed up by correctly spelling “inlet” to win the event.
The winner of the 3rd-5th Bee competition went to Floyd Elementary fourth-grader Lilly Thomassian, while J.G. Johnson third-grader Ashley Metcalf earned the runner-up award.
Thomassian, meanwhile successfully spelled Reynolds’ misspelled word, “potentialities,” which was followed by her correctly spelling her word “gesticulations.”
Following the introductions, rules and procedures were explained by J.G. Johnson’s Debra Carle, as the K-2 participants took to the stage first, followed by the third through fifth graders.
J.G. Johnson’s K-2 grade resource instructor Michele Bolton said all of the participants should be proud of their respective achievements.
“I thought the spelling bee was a big success and it seems every year, the kids get smarter and smarter and we have to go higher and higher to the more difficult words they have to spell,” she said.
Additionally, Bolton said the students used very little classroom time to prepare for the annual competition.
“All of the students who participated actually studied at home,” she said. “They did have some classroom practice at times for them to get a feel of how the event would move along. Part of the rules required a lot of poise to stand up in front of the audience and spell the word without stumbling or repeating themselves. We have been holding the spelling bee for many years here at the school. This year, it was very well attended by the parents and students participating.”
Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes