ARL student wins third spelling bee

Jared Ward, a eighth grade student at Albert R. Lyman Middle School in Blanding, made a three-peat as top speller after a competitive 26 rounds in the Region Spelling Bee.
Jared prepared for this Bee since last year’s title by studying thousands of words and hoping to take top honors again for his last appearance at the Region Bee. His hard work paid off although there was a nervous moment when he misspelled “condescension” in Round 22. Fortunately for Jared, the second place speller, Paul Bryner, then misspelled “imperceptible.”
According to the rules, in order to be declared champion Paul would have had to spell the next word correctly. So Jared was back in the competition and went on to clinch the title with the championship word “conniption.”
Jared started the bee spelling words like rucksack, hickory, animosity, formidable, parfait, and semantics.
The Bee brings together spellers from Carbon, Emery, Grand, and San Juan districts plus Pinnacle Canyon Academy. The 7th round thinned the original field of 14 to 5 excellent spellers who went six more rounds without a mistake. By Round 15 Noah Kemner and Paul Bryner kept pace with Jared for five more rounds.
Noah was named third place speller with Paul Bryner claiming the second spot. There were two sets of brothers competing in the Region Bee, the Bryner’s and the Park’s.
Sponsored by the Southeast Education Service Center, the Region Bee was held at Grand High. Larry Davis, Principal of Emery High, pronounced the Bee words and Theresa Wilson and Johnna Boyack served as judges. The Region Bee is a preliminary competition in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, May 26-June 1 in Washington D.C.
As first place speller, Jared received an all-expense paid trip for two to Washington D.C. to compete in the National Bee. He also was awarded a Louis Sugarman Award of a 2013 Mint Proof Set and a Merriam-Webster’s Third New International Dictionary.
Top spellers receive a year’s subscription to Encylopaedia Brittannica Online, gift certificates and a Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.
The top three District spellers grades 4 through 8 advanced to the Region Bee from bees held in their local schools and districts earlier this year.
San Juan District spellers are Jared Ward, Noah Kemner and Annsheri Reay. Grand spellers are Teddy Park, Mary Kimmerle and Kevin Park.
Emery District sent Simone Burton, Tiana Jensen & Lainee Jensen. Competing from Carbon District were Paul Bryner, James Bryner and Peyton Hocanson. Pinnacle Academy participants are Marco Clegg, Isaac Ochao and J.R. Jensen
The Scripps Bee is the nation’s largest and longest-running educational promotion, administered by The E.W. Scripps Company. The Bee’s purpose is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives.
Nine newspapers collaborated to start the National Spelling Bee in 1925. In 1941, Scripps took over sponsorship of the National Spelling Bee. The program experienced steady growth and between 1980 and 1990 the number of participants doubled.
In recent years the program underwent a second growth spurt — and a significant surge in popularity — thanks to live coverage on ESPN.
Best of luck to Jared in the National Spelling Bee in May.

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