Schools
Defending Will County Champ Qualifies for Valley View District Spelling Bee
Kim Belser, who traveled to Washington, DC, for the Scripps National Spelling Bee last year, has qualified to again compete in the Valley View School District 365U spelling bee.
In what can only be called a battle of epoch proportions, two Humphrey Middle School 8th graders went 93 rounds over two days of competition to determine who will represent the school in the Valley View School District 365U Spelling Bee Feb. 5.
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The winner? Kim Belser who spelled "asthmogenic" correctly after Christy Parzsyzek misspelled "machismo."
Christy and Kim are not strangers to each other. As sixth-graders, Christy edged Kim to move on to district. Last year, as seventh-graders, Kim beat Christy, and not only went on to win the VVSD crown but also won the Will County title and went to Washington, DC, to compete in the national spelling bee.
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Thursday both young ladies correctly spelled such words as panglossian, ephemeral, angstrom, erudite, graupel, pochismo, vorlage and ostentatious. On Friday they both had no trouble with such words as prattle, langosta, sebruga, androcentric, knavery, eiderdown, and bildungsroman. Kim spelled "langlauf" correctly in round 92 before Christy spelled "machismo" mochismo.
Two other Humphrey students also qualified for the VVSD Spelling Bee.
Sixth-grader John Belser (Kim’s brother) spelled “tithe” and “cordovan” correctly in the 15th round to edge Jasmine Saenz after she misspelled “contrapuntal.”
Seventh-grader Erick Ramirez advanced to the district bee for a second straight year by handling “bureaucracy” and “patriarch” correctly in the 11th round. Janielle Javier finished second missing “jeremiad.”
Lukancic Middle School qualifiers
The runnerup in last year’s Valley View School District 365U Spelling Bee will be back for another try for the crown at the 2013 district spelling bee.
Elizabeth Zahorick spelled “complexity” correctly in the eighth round of Thursday’s Lukancic spelling bee to eliminate fellow eighth-grader Aldo Juarez who had misspelled “provoke.”
Zahorick will be joined by Lukancic sixth-grader Marcelle Bonny and seventh-grader Kaitlyn Jones as the school’s representatives at the Feb. 5 district bee.
Bonny spelled “satire” correctly after second place finisher Kayla Kalal missed on “purification” in the ninth round.
It took 12 rounds for Jones to win, spelling “reign” correctly after Giselle Palma had misspelled “evaluate.”
A. Vito Martinez Middle School qualifiers
Rory Richards, Mia Alegado and Meto Ajagu will represent A. Vito Martinez Middle School at the Feb. 5 Valley View School District 365U Spelling Bee at Humphrey Middle School.
Richards won the 8th grade division by spelling “implicit” correctly in the 12th round after runnerup Trey Harbert had misspelled “flirtatious.”
Alegado took the 7th grade slot with an 8th round correct spelling of “intricate.” Second place finisher Tyler Lee missed on “ferocious.”
Ajagu is the 6th grade representative thanks to a 7th round spelling of “explanation” following a misspelling by runnerup Derrick Perkins on the word “covetous.”
Editor's note: This article is a press release from Valley View School District 365U.
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