Middle school winners emerge from

‘fierce competition’ spelling bee

By Lyle Fletcher

Staff writer

Feb. 15, 2018

EPHRAIM—Close to 30 students entered the spelling bee at Ephraim Middle School on Feb. 2, and seven contestants remained when the list of words ran out.

After holding a finalist spelldown four days later on Tuesday, Feb. 6, eighth-grader Katelyn Nordfelt emerged as the overall winner. She will advance to the regional competition on March 10 at Hillcrest High School in Orem.

Steve Weller at the middle school said some students they didn’t expect entered the spelling bee. He added, “We were surprised at how well they did. Only a couple of students got out each round, which meant they studied hard and were prepared for this competition.”

Weller called the spelling bee “a fierce competition,” and he added, “The audience was respectful and cheered appropriately, but there was a palpable tension in the room as it got down to the final (seven) spellers. After several rounds of students spelling every word correctly, we ran out of the list words.”

Among the seven finalists were two pairs of sisters: twin sisters in seventh grade, Rachel Nelson and Juliana Nelson, and sisters sixth-grader Sara G and seventh-grader Mischelle G (Weller explains that “they just go by the last initial G instead of trying to sound their name out” for everyone).

Other finalists include sixth-grader Canon Barclay and seventh-grader Evan Wright.