Hannah Stewart of Enota Multiple Intelligences Academy and Rasmit Devkota of Gainesville Middle School are this year's champion spellers in the Gainesville City School System.
They won the elementary and middle school Spelling Bees, respectively, Friday at Gainesville Middle School.
Stewart won by correctly spelling “infraction” in the 12th round of the competition. Ella Beccue of Centennial Arts Academy was runner-up. There were 18 contestants in the elementary school competition: Deyanira Araujo, Tram Nguyen, Nahariyah Francis, Jeremiah Glasper, Brianna Rodriguez, Kelvin Zavala, Ella Beccue, Arjunn Patel, Lesly Chavez, Kasiya Moore, Aiden Baker, Arianna Wilbourn, Hannah Stewart, Karis Lovell, Noah Grindle, Joshua Alvarez, Marc Juarez, and Elizabeth Frasier-Lewis.
Devkota, a 7th-grader, correctly spelled "ricochet" in the fifth round to win the middle school crown. The runner-up was Zephaniah Burton, also a 7th-grader.
Devkota will represent Gainesville schools at the Georgia Association of Educators Regional Spelling Bee February 24 at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center in Marietta. The winner and runner-up of the regional competition will advance to the State Spelling Bee to be held on March 16 with the location to be determined at a later date.
Thirty one contestants competed at the middle school level. They were: Michael Ruth, Cale Wright, Alexia Lewis, Zephaniah Burton, Zack Bowker, Haylee Simonds, Inmer Vanegas, Steele Hothem, Jake Lindsey, Daniela Duarte, Emmanuel Blanco, Judith Aviles, Eduardo Rosas, Ahmya Reed, Hassan Khan, Rasmit Devkota, Emily Mosqueda-Calderon, Devynn Standridge, Taeya Meeks, Evelin Perez-Juarez, Avery Schofield, Jonathan Velasquez, Joseph Ward, Santiago Puentes, Juan Hernandez, Jan Montenegro, Bryan Gomez, Kimberly Mosqueda-Calderon, Braylon Randolph, Ramone Jenkins, and Bryan Beltran.
(The spelling bee for the Hall County School System was held last week.)
