Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
The final contestants for the 2018 Spelling Bee took the stage at the Harry E. McNees Auditorium in Kimball on Thursday, Feb. 15. The contestants were whittled down following a written test the same day.
The final winner of the 2018 Kimball Spelling Bee was Xavier Thomas-Lewis. Here he is handed his trophy.
Kimball's fourth through eighth grade top spellers all competed for the top prize last Thursday Feb. 15.
A writing test was issued to all students, the top finishers in that were issued an oral spelling test in class with the six top spellers in each grade competing in the Spelling Bee.
In the fourth grade category, it was Braxton Miller as top speller, followed by Amber Childress, Hannah Kilgore, Jade O' Rourke, Eddie Duran, and Tyger Bartels.
For the fifth grade class was Jason Fox, Cody Brinkman, Hunter Funk, Kylie Osborn, Shay Heim, and Lacey Brown.
Representing the sixth graders, were Landon Norberg as top speller, Jessica Terrill, Shannen Marks, Mitchell Birkhofer, and Blaize Kizzair.
Seventh grade top speller was Xavier Thomas-Lewis, followed by Angel Helms, Charlotte Hargreaves, Hannah Schildhauer, Emma Patterson, and Trey Shindler.
Eighth graders was Gideon Casimiro, Anabela Whitehead, Aliyah Barber, Amy Birkhofer, and Caelyn Long.
Enunciator of the event was Carolyn Montgomery and the judges were Krissy Bush, Jo Dietz, and Linda Mihm.
With all five grades competing against each other, things were bound to get tough. The contest started with a practice round, followed by the start of the spelling competition, one wrong spelling of the word forced that speller out of the game.
The nerves were high in the auditorium once it began, but started to settle very quickly. The rounds went fast, taking 29 spellers down to two for the final round.
Sixth grader Landon Norberg and seventh grader Xavier Thomas-Lewis were the two left standing. The slight rule change for the final round was given, stating that the first student was given a word to spell, if he/she spelled it correctly, he/she was given another word to spell, however, if he/she answered the first word wrong, the second speller was able to try to spell the word correctly. If he/she spelled it wrong, the round started over, but, if it was correct, he/she then was given another word to spell correctly.
Thomas-Lewis came out on top, by just two words over Norberg.
Great job to all of the students who competed in this spelling contest and to Thomas-Lewis and Norberg for making it to the finals and for putting on a great show.
Congratulations Xaiver!
