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Lincoln County spelling bee champion Taylor Holmes (right) poses with runner-up Christopher Burrow after the competition at Great Salt Bay Community School in Damariscotta Feb. 11. (J.W. Oliver photo) |
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By J.W. Oliver
Bristol Consolidated School eighth-grader Taylor Holmes, 14, is the 2014 Lincoln County Spelling Bee champion.
Holmes won the annual competition at Great Salt Bay Community School Feb. 11. South Bristol School seventh-grader Christopher Burrow, 12, of Bristol, was the runner-up.
Holmes and Burrow survived 10 rounds of single-elimination competition to narrow the field of eight to two.
The boys fielded several challenging words along the way. Holmes negotiated chinchilla, geode and waywiser; while grabble, Permian and prescription did not faze Burrow.
The boys needed two more rounds to determine a champion. Bee rules require the champion to spell a second word correctly after the other student misses a word in order to secure victory.
Holmes and Burrow managed tycoon and belladonna, respectively, to extend the contest to round 12.
Holmes began the round by correctly spelling knapsack. Burrow tripped up on bungalow. Finally, Holmes spelled cleanser to win the competition.
Holmes, in an interview after the bee, said waywiser was the most challenging word. Merriam-Webster defines waywiser as “an instrument (as an odometer or pedometer) for measuring the distance traversed by a walker, vehicle, or ship.”
The word was “a new word to me,” Holmes said, but he spelled it like it sounds.
Holmes was an alternate to his school bee. A classmate missed school the day of the bee, and Holmes filled in and finished as runner-up, securing a spot at the county level.
Now, Holmes and the other 15 county champions will advance to the Maine State Spelling Bee at the University of Southern Maine in Portland, Saturday, March 22. Burrow is the alternate and will participate if Holmes cannot.
The champion of the state bee will represent Maine at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Bristol Consolidated School, Edgecomb Eddy School, Great Salt Bay Community School and South Bristol School were the only schools in the county to participate in the Scripps National Spelling Bee this year. The champion and runner-up from each school bee compete in the county bee.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is the largest and longest-running educational promotion in the U.S., according to its website. The purpose of the bee is to “help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives.”
