Lincoln County Spelling Bee moderator Jen Wright presents Great Salt Bay Community School eighth grader Otis Ball with a balloon and flowers after he won the county spelling bee. (Paula Roberts photo)
Great Salt Bay Community School eighth grader Otis Ball won the Lincoln County Spelling Bee on Wednesday, March 4.
The spelling bee was moderated by GSB teacher Jen Wright, and Jefferson Village School’s Julie Madden and South Bristol School’s Kayla Wright served as judges.
By winning the county bee, Ball qualified for the state spelling bee on Saturday, March 21 at Bowdoin College in Brunswick. GSB sixth grader Thomas Roberts placed second and is an alternate for state competition. Edgecomb Eddy fifth grader Joshua Stetson placed third.
Four schools in Lincoln County participated in the spelling bee. The spelling contest turned out to be one of the fastest on record, lasting 15 minutes to determine the winner.
Four out of the seven participants went out in the first round. In the first round, Stetson correctly spelled nervous; South Bristol’s Aria Larrabee Cotz tripped up on anguish; Edgecomb Eddy School sixth grader Eric Bennett was eliminated by ramshackle; Ball correctly spelled courier; Jefferson eighth grader Katherine McDonald went out on squalor; Roberts correctly spelled emphatically; and Jefferson sixth grader Eloise Waldrop misspelled concierge.
The second round saw Stetson trip up on pumpernickel; Ball correctly spelled airborne; and Roberts misspelled exaggerate. Ball then spelled forfeit to win the spelling bee.
Stetson and Roberts then battled it out for second place. Stetson misspelled isolation. Roberts then spelled charitable and obliterate to place second.
