2 students move on to Randall County Spelling Bee finals Friday
Randall County held its junior spelling bee for students in grades 3-5 on Monday afternoon at Heritage Hills Elementary in Amarillo, with the top two spellers moving on to the Randall County Spelling Bee to take place Friday.
Coming out as the champion from the large field was Lily McClenny, a fifth-grader from Pinnacle Intermediate. She edged out Colton Lopez from Greenways Intermediate, who finished second.
The top three students from each Randall County school in grades 3-5 were among the 45 contestants in the junior spelling bee. By round five, the field had been whittled down to three students, with the word "modular" narrowing the field to the top two spellers for round six.
In round six, Lopez misspelled the word "porcelain", which gave the eventual champion McClenny the chance to take the title as she spelled "phalanges" and "regurgitate" back to back to be crowned junior spelling champion in the seventh round of the contest.
Both contestants will move on to the county spelling bee to face off against other students all the way up to the eighth grade.
Lopez smiled as he held his trophy and said that he was happy with his finish and wanted to work harder for the next spelling bee.
“It feels really good to do well today; I am really very honored,” Lopez said. “The key was being confident, calm and taking my time."
He said that the word that got him into second place, "promethium" was very familiar to him since teachers use promethium boards in the classroom to help educate students. He also wanted to thank his mom for all the work she put into his studying.
“I am so proud of him; he gets his spelling from me. He is a hard worker and is very intelligent,” Candice Lopez said. “We are going to put in a lot of work to prepare for Randall County Bee.”
McClenny said that she was somewhat surprised by winning Monday, since she has a history of coming in second in these types of events.
“It felt really good to win today; I really thought I would get second place,” McClenny said. “I am apprehensive about Friday’s Bee. These words were tough, so I think those will be harder.”
She said that she was not really that familiar with the winning word, but she was able to sound it out to win. Her parents worked with her all the time for the event, and she said that she will be putting in extra work this week.
McClenny said that her family was going to get her a special gift for her performance, hoping it would be a pair of Air Force 1’s with pastel colors on the Swoosh that she has her eye on.
“She did so good; I am so proud of her,” her mom, Amy McClenny, said. “We do a lot of studying as a family."
Her father also shared his excitement about her win today.
Jarrod McClenny said, “I am over the moon about her win today; just exuberant about her performance. I knew she had it in her; she just had to calm down and focus."
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: 2 students advance to Randall County Spelling Bee finals Friday
