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2011 RCPS Spelling Bee

The following article is reposted with permission from the Daily News-Record

County Students Test Spelling Abilities

Anthony Malabad Wins In Round 11

 

HARRISONBURG - Wilbur S. Pence Middle School student Anthony Malabad correctly spelled "variegated" Monday to take the Rockingham County Public Schools Spelling Bee title for 2011.

The competition, for fifth- through eighth-graders, took place before a crowd of several hundred at Mountain View Elementary School. Anthony, a seventh-grader, said he spent several hours studying for the bee since learning in January that he would participate in the countywide competition.

"Some of the words were tough," he said. "I was trying to work out the vowels. They trip me up a lot."

Anthony, 13, bested 25 other students in the test of orthographical prowess, surviving 11 rounds. The first contestants were eliminated in Round 3, while Round 4 saw 10 more competitors fall. Some words from that round included "nausea," "eavesdrop" and "rhubarb." Another eight students were eliminated in Round 5, misspelling words such as "inoculate," "phalanx" and "succinct."

Simon Sawyer, 12, a seventh-grader from J. Frank Hillyard Middle School, went toe-to-toe with Anthony in Round 9 before misspelling "septicemia" in Round 10. Anthony correctly spelled "hypotenuse" to advance to Round 11.

His mother, Melissa Malabad, said Anthony finished fifth in the state geography bee last year and is a straight-A student.

"I'm incredibly proud," she said, although she admitted his father, Paul, helped the most with Anthony's spelling studies. "I'll give him credit," she said.

The final nine competitors from the county bee now advance to the regional spelling bee scheduled for 11 a.m. March 5. The competition will be broadcast live from the Harrisonburg studios of WVPT television. From there, the winner will go on to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., on June 1-2.

The county bee was sponsored this year by Rockingham County Schools, the Rockingham Educational Foundation Inc. and the County Council of PTAs. The regional sponsors are the Daily News-Record, WVPT-TV Public Television and the Rockingham District Ruritans. According to the school division, the Ruritans will award a laptop computer to the regional winner, and pay the travel and lodging costs for that student and a parent to attend the national bee.

The other eight students heading to the regional spelling bee are: Nicholas Eckels, 11, of Elkton Elementary; Brianna Armentrout, 13, and Simon Sawyer, 12, of J. Frank Hillyard Middle; Madeline Hall, 10, of Mountain View Elementary; Gabrielle Dean, 13, and John Spicer, 11, of Elkton Middle; Adeline Hipps, 10, of John Wayland Elementary; and Drake Comer, 13, of Wilbur S. Pence Middle.

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Contact Joshua Brown at 574-6286 or jbrown@dnronline.com