Susan McDaniel Havre Daily News smcdaniel@havredailynews.com
The two girls went back and forth for 16 rounds before a winner was declared. Finally, in round 21, the words macadamia and pumpernickel guaranteed first-place winner Casandra Rennick, a Sunnyside Intermediate School fifthgrader, a trip to the Treasure State Spelling Bee to be held in Butte on Saturday, March 31. The second-place finisher, Beata DeRamos, a Havre Middle School seventh-grader helped make the morning an exciting one, as the two girls took their turns at the microphone with the pronouncer Sue Wendland giving them word after word to spell. The HMS hosted the 42nd annual Hill County Spelling Bee on Tuesday morning. Seventy of Hill County’s best spellers in grades five through eight representing eight public schools, three home schools and a parochial school met in a competition to take home the top prizes. The first round of the bee retired 44 of Hill County’s finest spellers; the end of round two saw the numbers drop again to only 11 students. During round five, third-place winner, Anthony Moreni, an HMS seventh-grader misspelled the word belladonna. Other winners among the top 10 were Jordan Spicher, a North Star eighth-grader; Dominic Sebey, an eighthgrader from Davey School; and Chanal Standing Rock, a Rocky Boy fifth-grader. Three HMS seventhgrade students Davis Teigler, Dani Hanger and Chad Minnick placed along with eighth-grader Amber Frazier. In addition to Wendland as pronouncer, Voyd St. Pierre acted as the master of ceremonies. The judges were Merilyn Hall, Mark Irvin and Jeremiah Nitz. The county bee director is Shirley Isbell. The recording technician was Clay Vincent. The Havre Jaycees provided the first-place trophy. The Hill County Superintendent of Schools office provided the second- and thirdplace trophies and the top 10 prizes. Lee Newspapers of Montana provided all students with participation certificates.
