Spellers from all across Nemaha County gathered at the NCEMS gym on Saturday, January 21, for the 2024 Nemaha County Spelling Bee. There were a total of 18 ambitious spellers ranging from 4th grade to 8th grade. The participants from NCEMS were Abbott Sullivan 6th grade, Kaden Sperfslage 7th grade, Jayla Nolte 7th grade, Lilly Leis 8th grade, and Will Martin 6th grade. The participants from SPPS were Kennedy Carlson 8th grade, Kaylin Kohake 6th grade, Simon Strathman 5th grade, Logan Uphaus 8th grade, Liam Felder 8th grade, and Fabrizzio Kramer 8th grade. The participants from Centralia were Carlee Steinlage 7th grade, Piper Koch 4th grade, Avery Deters 6th grade, and Kya Franklin 8th grade. The participants from Sabetha were Eli Rebant 6th grade, Emmett Kroll 7th grade, and Reed Toedman 8th grade.
Unfortunately, not all of the spellers that qualified for the County Bee could make it but, it was still a great turnout. The winner of the County Bee would advance to the Sunflower State Spelling Bee in Salina.
Once the spellers arrived, they had to draw a number from a cup and that number would be the seat they sit in and also the order they would go in to spell. Once everyone was in their seats and ready to go, the spelling bee commenced.
All of the spellers got a practice round to get their nerves out before the real thing. Once each speller got to the podium, they were asked to state their name, grade, and school. The practice round started with Kennedy Carlson and ended with Reed Toedman. This order would remain the same until the very end.
Once the practice round was over, it was time for the real thing. Round one started off with some challenging words that ended up eliminating three spellers, Piper Koch, Simon Strathman, and Avery Deters.
Round two was a difficult round with lots of hard words that took a little longer than round one. The round eventually ended with spellers Kaylin Kohake, Logan Uphaus, and Emmett Kroll getting out.
It was obvious now that with each round the words would progress and get more and more difficult. Round three proved this theory by eliminating four spellers, Carlee Steinlage, Liam Felder, Eli Rebant, and Reed Toedman.
Round four got increasingly difficult and ended up eliminating another four spellers including Kennedy Carlson, Kaden Sperfslage, Kya Franklin, and Will Martin.
Round five had very tough words like hypocaust and luciferin and many more confusing words. But, when the round was complete, only one person got out, speller Jayla Nolte.
There were only three remaining spellers, Fabrizzio Kramer, Abbott Sullivan, and Lilly Leis. All three of these participants would get a medal for getting top three but we still had to decide who would advance to the Sunflower State Bee. The sixth round began with Abbott, then Fabrizzio, then Lilly. Fabrizzio ended up getting out on a very tricky word. That left Lilly Leis and Abbott Sullivan to duke it out to see who would be advancing.
Abbott Sullivan went first for round seven, then Lilly Leis, neither of them got out so it was off to the next round.
Round eight began and Abbott Sullivan got eliminated by a very difficult word. Next was Lilly and she got her word correct which meant all she had to do was spell a word right to advance to the Sunflower State Spelling Bee. The word was Mumbai, and Lilly nailed it! Lilly Leis is the Nemaha County Spelling Bee Champion and will be advancing to the Sunflower State Spelling Bee in Salina. Runner-ups were Abbott Sullivan, 2nd place, and Fabrizzio Kramer, 3rd place.
Spelling Bee winner Lilly Leis said, "It was too early in the morning but I got up early enough and spelled hard words and somehow I won."
Congrats to all of the participants for making it and everyone did an excellent job!