A Spelling Bee for the ages

ELGIN—Minn.
“H—e—r—m—e—t—i—c—a—l—l—y,” said MollyKate Hagen, a Plainview-Elgin-Millville seventh-grader competing in the final round of this year’s Spelling Bee at the fourth through sixth grade elementary gym in Elgin on Thursday, Jan. 18. “Hermetically.”
With an energetic and restless crowd of fifth through eighth graders anxiously waiting for some sort of official ruling from the judges, the gym fell silent. After a brief moment and an affirmative nod from the emcee, Hagen was told that she had correctly spelled the final word and was crowned as this year’s district champion.
“It was one of the most exciting Spelling Bees we have ever had,” said fifth-grade teacher Kate Lund, who is in charge of organizing the annual event. “The ending of the Spelling Bee was phenomenal!”
The last two remaining contestants, Hagen and fellow seventh grader and runner-up Ryan Gostonzcik correctly spelled “parenthetical,” “germinate,” “subterranean,” “endeavor,” “orthopedic,” “labyrinthine,” “lichenous,” “chandeliers,” “acacias,” “Pyrenees,” “translucent,” “interpolated,” and “pulmonary”—just to name a few of the words the students exchanged back and forth. Hagen’s last correctly spelled word before “hermetically” was “interstices.”
“I could not believe the words both MollyKate, and Ryan were spelling,” said Lund. “It was a lot of fun to watch!”
Though Hagen and Gostonzcik finished in the top two places, all contestants demonstrated impressive spelling skills, captivating their peers and audience members.
In fact, after rules were given to the 24 students in fifth through eighth grade and the completion of a practice round in which all contestants correctly spelled their words, contestants correctly spelled over 50 consecutive words to begin this year’s Spelling Bee, successfully completing

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