Matthew Pattok, an eighth grade student at Hastings Middle School, won the Barry ISD Regional Spelling Bee Tuesday evening and qualified for the Greater Grand Rapids Spelling Bee to be held March 27, at the Gerald R. Ford Museum in downtown Grand Rapids.
Pattok will compete against students from all over West Michigan for the honor of spelling at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May in Washington, D.C. He bested 17 other competitors, spelling "sonata" and "retrospective" to win the night. Runner up was Cayden Snow, also from Hastings Middle School, who fell on "pueblo.”
How would you have done? Other words that students misspelled included: workmanship, humble, macaroni, stethoscope, and bungalow. Words missed in vocabulary rounds included: sable, animosity, dungaree, nosh, and innate.
Rich Franklin, Barry ISD superintendent, said that the evening was a great success and a chance for the students involved to show off a little of their academic prowess. "Each student up on that stage is supported by parents, grandparents, teachers, and others in the audience who are so proud that they made it this far, and so glad they're not up here spelling, themselves!" Franklin said.
Other competitors were Jessica Halder and Dale Thompson from Barry County Christian School; Isabella Morey, Tucker Patrick-Swinehart, Allison Shadoff, Madelynn Palmer, Eric Belka, Alekzander Waller, and Elijah Austin from Delton Kellogg Middle School; Connor Lindsey, Keegan Lindsey, Phoebe Birchfield, Lily Comensoli, and Hannah Smith from Hastings Middle School; and Anika Bourassa and Alex Flikkema from Saint Rose of Lima School.
Qualifying but not competing were Stephanie Dunn from Hastings Middle School and Levi Garrett from Delton Kellogg Middle School.
Mary Collier was the pronouncer for the bee once again this year. Judges were Cheryl Bower, Dr. Bob Becker, and Dee Defields. Carol VanDenBerg and Dawn Weeks served as audience advocates and Deb Hatfield was the registrar.
Franklin thanked Delton Kellogg Schools for hosting, especially Mike Wertman for setup and tech support, and Denice Cook for arranging the site. The bee was held in the auditorium/large group instruction room at Delton Kellogg High School.
