Spellers demonstrate a-c-u-m-e-n at state bee

The Daily Inter Lake

Abby Connolly, winner of this year's Flathead County spelling bee, put in a strong performance and finished in eighth place Saturday, April 1, at the state spelling bee.

The county's runner-up, Hunter Lapp, tied for 20th place with several of the 64 other contestants at the Treasure State Spelling Bee in Billings.

Connolly, a West Valley School eighth-grader, reported that she missed on the word "litigious."

Lapp, in eighth grade at Kalispell Junior High, said he missed on "gambrel."

Flathead County's third-place speller, Jenna Egdorf of Swan River School, was eligible for but unable to attend the state bee.

Montana's state contest, held on April Fool's Day, hit news stations across the country when the top two contestants battled head-to-head for 25 rounds before Anna Rose Wright of Belgrade won out over Tim Best of Joliet.

Those rounds occurred after Wright and Best had gone through 16 rounds that eliminated other contestants in the 4 1/2-hour spelling bee marathon. Both of the students who survived until the end of the 41 rounds are home schooled.

Wright won an expenses-paid trip to the Scripps National Spelling Bee from May 31 to June 1 in Washington, D.C.