Students sweep regional spelling bee

Two Sisters Middle School students - fifth grader Nila Lukens and eighth grader Adam Cash - walked away with first place honors in their respective divisions at the 2008 Central Oregon Regional Spelling Bee. Each will receive a $1,000 college savings bond and compete in the state spelling bee at the Oregon State Fair this summer.

All students in grades K-8 in Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson counties are eligible to participate in the competition, and students from more than 25 area schools challenged one another at the spelldown at Redmond High School on Saturday, February 9. Students compete in three divisions: Division 1 is for grades K-3; Division 2 is for fourth and fifth graders; and Division 3 is for grades 6-8.

In addition to Nila and Adam, fourth graders Phylicia Landis and Danielle Sparling and seventh grader Kristina Sparling also represented Sisters Middle School at last Saturday's regional competition. Third grader Danny Schlatter and second grader Alena Albertson represented the elementary school.

"We were so proud of the Sisters students who were there. All of the Sisters kids handled themselves with phenomenal poise," said Danielle and Kristina's father Jim Sparling. He told The Nugget that Alena was the first person to start off the whole competition, handling herself with great aplomb.

According to Susan Elliott, the High Desert Educational Services District Regional Spelling Bee Coordinator, Horizon Broadcasting provides a scholarship to the winner in each of the contest's three divisions.

"They in turn solicit sponsors," she said. This year's scholarship sponsors were Community First Bank, Trimble, Everton, Farrens and Mode Certified Public Accountants and Century Insurance Group.

To select the middle school's regional competitors, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade language arts teachers conducted spelldowns within their individual classrooms.

"They had little individual spelling competitions with grade-level spelling words," said middle school technology teacher and TAG (Talented and Gifted) coordinator Isolde Hedemark.

Sixth grade classroom winners were: Wyatt Hougham; Devon Calvin; Canyon O'Neal; and Devon Cash. Seventh grade classroom winners were: Austin Boatwright; Taylor Nieri; Mitch Keranen; Gabe Rietmann; and Kristina Sparling. In the eighth grade winners were: Conor Greaney; Hannah Harrer; Adam Cash; and Noel Chen.

The competition was organized a little differently for fifth graders who were all brought together for a fifth-grade spelldown.

The classroom winners next competed for the middle school's Division 2 and Division 3 championships. Division 2 winners were Nila Lukens in first place, with Kendra Kemp runner-up. In Division 3 seventh grader Kristina Sparling placed first, with eighth grader Adam Cash gaining second-place honors.

Fifth grader Nila Lukens said her Sisters Middle School Division 2 competition was scary.

"Everyone was watching and stuff. I was kind of under pressure," she said, noting that in the division competitions she did not misspell any words.

The middle school's Division 3 runner-up eighth grader Adam Cash found himself disarranged by the word "dishevel."

Although the first-place winner Kristina Sparling stumbled on "gamut," she gained her Division 3 middle school victory through the correct spelling of the tie-breaker word "mordant."