Haplology, Subterranean, Martingale—Middle School Spelling Bee Spotlights Talented Tartans

Grade 7 student Aili McGregor emerged as the winner, outlasting 20 strong spellers. 
The Middle School student body assembled in Hurlbut Theater last week to watch its top 20 spellers compete for a chance to move on to the Orange County Spelling Bee. 
 
The competition was intense this year, taking five rounds to identify the final three spellers who would move on to the championship round. In the end, grade 7 student Aili McGregor emerged as the winner, spelling “martingale” correctly in the championship round. Second place was a tie between grade 8 student Sarah Tomeo and grade 7 student Alex Kenny, who competed to a stalemate after each spelling five more words correctly including “subnivean” and “haplology.”
 
Aili, Sarah and Alex will move on to the Orange County Spelling Bee written round on February 26 in Costa Mesa. This round serves as qualification for the oral round of the Orange County Spelling Bee on March 3.
 
St. Margaret’s Middle School students took a qualification quiz in their English classes and the top 20 performers were invited to compete in the Middle School Spelling Bee. The competition began with an oral round where students spelled difficult words like “expeditionaries” and “subterranean.” Words from the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee Association became increasingly more difficult as students advanced through the competition.
 
Those qualifying for last week’s Spelling Bee included grade 6 students Radley Copps, Tanner Harden, Samantha Kushner, Fiona Lee, Ronin McMahon and Ryder Smith, grade 7 students Alex, Aili, Emma Evanson, Jonathan Lee, Kate Matthew, Andrew Miehe, T.J. Pavia and Kaitlin Tam, and grade 8 students Sarah, Preston Brinker, Alex Fournier, Conrad Kistler, Jeanie Liang, Harrison Trikas and Simone Yang.
 
The St. Margaret’s and Orange County spelling bees serve to encourage students to improve spelling and expand vocabularies, which positively affects reading and writing skills. 
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