How do you spell w-i-n-n-e-r?

West Valley School eighth-grader claims Flathead County Spelling Bee title

Who ever heard of "collywobbles?"

Not Hunter Lapp.

But the Kalispell Junior High eighth-grader still figured out how to spell the highfalutin term for stomach ache and enough other words to finish as the runner-up in the Flathead County Spelling Bee Friday afternoon.

Abby Connolly easily got past words like "polenta" and "adobo" and "euphonious" to do an "impeccable" job and lock up the county spelling bee championship with "catalytic."

"I'm just happy," the smiling West Valley School eighth-grader said after the bee, blue ribbon in hand. It was her fourth time at the county spell-down. She went to state as the third-place finisher when she was in sixth grade, but this year she came out on top.

"It seems like the person sitting next to me always wins, instead of me," she said. "And last year the person sitting next to me even won state."

She reads a lot of Christian novels and Christian romance, she said, and a lot in the Bible.

"There's a log of big words in there," she said.

As the 2006 county champion, Connolly will lead the team of three who represent Flathead County at the state spelling bee April 1 in Billings.

For his part, Lapp is a three-time county competitor and fresh off his participation in the state bee last year, where he brought home an admirable finish in the top 20 or so.

"I read a lot when I was a kid," the Creston native said. "And my parents read to me a lot when I was little. They really made a big difference."

He still reads - he loves older science fiction and fiction - and on Friday proved his familiarity with the language by spelling "follicle," "ministerial" and "covey" before missing a single letter in "calefactory."

Jenna Egdorf, a Swan River School seventh-grader making her first trip to the county contest, will join Connolly and Lapp on the state bee team. She admitted to being a little nervous at first, but demonstrated her spelling acumen long enough to glide past "vestibule," then "diagnosis."

It wasn't until "pacification" came along that she stepped off the stage.

"I really didn't intend to win," Egdorf said. "I was just in it for the fun, something new."

Esther Willows, competing as a sixth-grader from Love and Faith Christian School, breezed through a long list of words that she capped off with "babushka." Then just one little "a" stood between her and the correct spelling of "turbulence," bringing her in at fourth place.

As the county's alternate for state participation, she admitted to a case of the jitters early on in the contest.

"It was worse walking up to the microphone and walking back from the microphone," said Willows, an avid reader of fantasy and adventure books. "It wasn't so bad spelling it."

The four students were the last standing among a field of 35 students from many schools across the county. County Superintendent Marcia Sheffels and assistant Mary Juntunen organized and presided over the event.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com