It started with every fifth-grade classroom determining a winner. Those winners had a school-wide competition to decide the top two. Pulaski County Middle School held their own school-wide competition as well, narrowing their representative down to two students. All of those, one primary and one alternate, then moved on to represent their schools Thursday in the annual Pulaski County Spelling Bee, held at the Pulaski County Middle School auditorium.
Words were chosen from a list of 375 words that included words like justaucorps, ziggurat, spatterdock, and Mixolydian. Each student was given one word at a time to spell out loud. If the word wasn’t clear, the students could ask for it to be repeated, ask for a definition, and ask for the word to be used in a sentence.
The group of finalists from across the school district included (primary competitor listed first with alternate listed second) Autumn Cox and Gavin Conner from Critzer Elementary; Keilan Vaughan and Taylor Freeman from Dublin Elementary; Nina Bucey-card and Thomas Tedesco from Pulaski Elementary; Landon Queen and Ethan Woodall from Riverlawn Elementary; Abigail York and Nathan Cox from Snowville Elementary; and Eillie Peterson and Milan Patzel from Pulaski County Middle School.
After several rounds of competition, it came down to Nina Bucey-Card from Pulaski Elementary and Ellie Peterson from Pulaski County Middle School. After a missed word by Peterson, Bucey-Card correctly spelled aversion, then correctly spelled prioress to earn the county championship.
Bucey-Card will now advance to the next level of competition, which will be held in March in Roanoke.
To see more photos from the spelling bee, visit our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pulas...