Wicoff wins word contest

A field of 24 was quickly winnowed down in the Allen County Spelling Bee in Iola Wednesday. The Dale Creitz Recital Hall at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center held a smattering of parents and school officials who watched as three contestants each from eight area middle and elementary schools battled their wits more than each other by grappling with words such as “deluxe,” “rehearsal” and “measure.”
The biggest gaff was placing an ‘a’ where an ‘o’ ought to be, in words like stethoscope and bonanza.
Words of non-English origin felled a few others. “Bambino” and “polka” and “mahi mahi” all took their toll on the spellers.
After three swift rounds, only 10 contestants remained.
Through each round, McKinley’s Jacob Marlow and Marmaton Valley’s Payton Wilson gave each other hand slaps and big grins as they beat the words. Though Payton fell to “nightingale,” he still received a shake from his pal.
Jacob succumbed to luau in the next round, anglicizing the Hawaiian word to “louow.”
Throughout the bee, some contestants asked for definitions or country of origin of their words. Occasionally, this tripped them up, as when Taylor Hessop learned “grotto” was French, then spelled it grauteau.
Pronouncers had more problems with “guru” than did Alexis Hessop, who spelled it in a flash.
After round three, only Emily Boyd, in sixth grade at Marmaton Valley, and Clara Wicoff, a fifth grader from Jefferson Elementary in Iola, remained.
They battled through seven more rounds, Emily whipping out her words without much ado, and Clara asking, consistently, for a sentence and origin and definition.
In round twelve, Emily stumbled on triumvirate.
Clara continued, correctly spelling clapboard (after wisely asking for an alternate pronunciation of what sounded to be “clabbered”) and doing the same for “rupee” (which could otherwise have been thought to be ruby).
She spelled the words on her hand before speaking them, a trick that seemed to save her at least once.
Whatever the method, Clara was winner of the Allen County bee.
This is her second year in that role, and she’ll move on to the Sunflower Spelling Bee at Barton County Community College in Great Bend on March 14.
Clara’s prepared. She said of the regional bee, “It’s a lot of fun, and it’s not as nerve wracking because you don’t know the people there.”
She’ll keep studying, though, “Every night as long as I can.”