"Geothermal" was the winning word at District Bee
The word "geothermal" proved the key to securing a four-year winning streak for Lincoln Middle School eighth-grader Catherine Sernel at the annual District 64 Spelling Bee. The 2017 champion edged out Kenneth Kim, an eighth-grader from Emerson Middle School, to win the Bee held on January 30, 2017 at Roosevelt School.
Kenneth's brother, Justin Kim, also an Emerson eighth-grader, came in third place. Carpenter School grade 3 student Charlie Warner took fourth place and Washington School grade 5 student Doug Sernel -- Catherine's brother -- finished fifth.
Sernel moves to local competition at the North Cook Regional Spelling Bee on Tuesday, February 7. Last year, her third place finish in that event earned her an opportunity to advance to regional competition before her quest ended.
This year's District Bee lasted a total of 19 rounds, consisting of both spelling and vocabulary rounds. Spelling bees were held at all seven schools earlier in January, with the top three spellers from each school earning an invitation to the District competition.
Incorporating words from the competition, District 64 Language Arts Curriculum Specialist Meghan Keefer noted that the spellers "hoped not to receive any 'petrifying' words and approached the spelling and vocabulary rounds with 'ebullience.' Although 'inadvertent' spelling and vocabulary mistakes were made, three spellers 'waltzed' to the end," she added.
District Bee judges were teachers Shirlee Pater from Franklin School and Sue Douglass from Carpenter School, along with Keefer. The pronouncer was Nancy Jensen, District 64 speech pathologist.
Overall, 216 students participated in the bees, which are offered as an extracurricular activity for students in grades 3-8.
The top three students from the 2017 elementary school bees included: Carpenter - Charlie Warner (grade 3), and Ella Antonacci and Ava Hurd (both grade 5); Field - Christian George and Meer Danha (both grade 4), and Teddy Flores (grade 5); Franklin - Annabelle Izzi (grade 3), Nathan Kapetanou (grade 4), and Mary Keller (grade 5); Roosevelt - Elias Kallen (grade 4), Adam Malinowski (grade 5), and Katie Foley (grade 3); and Washington - Doug Sernel (grade 5), and Stellen Karkazis and Juliana Careaga (both grade 4).
The top three spellers from the 2017 middle school bees included: Emerson - Justin Kim and Kenneth Kim (both grade 8), and Theodora Horaitis (grade 6); and Lincoln - Catherine Sernel (grade 8), and Callie Berthold and Thomas Devlin (both grade 6).