Each year, Richard T. Stank Middle School students take part in a little friendly competition with national implications. The local spelling bee challenge - the first step in a long and perilous road toward the Scripps National Spelling Bee - pits RTS students against their peers, while the rest of their peers peer on from the auditorium seats. The competition is tense and the words get more difficult as time wears on.
This year, students had to carefully visualize their way through such words as chicken, vividly, plumbing, antennas, remarkable, fiercest, disinfectant, obstacles, agricultural, and beatboxing. As their classmates slipped up and joined the audience, it left two sitting on the stage. With a chance to advance to the regionals on the line, it was Gavin Cole who correctly spelled cannonade to earn first place, with Xander Remza finishing second. Gavin and Xander advance to the Regional Spelling Bee, March 28, at Corning High School.
The 2019-20 RTS Spelling Bee contestants:
6th Grade: Gavin Cole (1st Place), Julia Clark, Jack Desimone, Donovan Jackson, Alex Leudemann, Samuel Olsen, Scarlett Rivera.
7th Grade: Jacob Bailey, Jakob Bernhauer, Clayton Gibbs, Mason Merriam, Xander Remza (2nd Place), Ali Stewart, Andrew Waite.
8th Grade: Chad Lainhart.