Best speller

The word bastion proved to be a stronghold for Spokane Valley Spelling Bee first-place winner Shannon Metzger, a St. Mary’s Catholic School sixth-grader.

Shannon pulled off that word Wednesday night to edge out eighth-grader Callie Johnson from Valley Christian School, who came in second at the 34th annual Valley spelling contest. Jordon Wing, a Bowdish Middle School sixth-grader, took third place.

“I just like going against competition and just working at getting better,” said Shannon, who had studied spelling words at home with her parents, Tom and Sue Metzger. “I like spelling, and I like competition.”

She also enjoys reading and cites her favorite books as the “Redwall” series, “Eragon” and “Eldest.”

Shannon, who won the top prize of $100 along with gift certificates, got congratulations from her parents and from her sixth-grade teacher, Paul Kennar, also in the audience.

The top three winners were the last standing after 12 finalists from area schools took their best shots at words including abrogation, ceremonious and defamation. Before an audience at Bowdish Middle School, the contestants sat in chairs on a stage and passed a microphone. They smiled at success, drew deep sighs, fidgeted their fingers and scrunched faces in concentration.

To get to Wednesday’s contest, students at 12 competing schools started with spelling bees in classrooms where language-arts teachers selected the top two or three spellers.

By Feb. 23, classroom winners meet in schoolwide spelling bees to select the top three spellers from each grade level, followed by an early March contest to select an overall school champion to go the Valley Spelling Bee. While the top three got cash awards from Tomlinson-Black Valley, all contestants received Applebee’s and Barnes & Noble gift certificates.

The other top school champions who competed Wednesday included Katelyn Bauman, seventh grade, Centennial Middle School; Tim Gales, seventh grade, East Valley Middle School; Cameron Burke, seventh grade, Evergreen Middle School; Dillon Butler, eighth grade, Gethsemane Lutheran School; Lauren Speers, eighth grade, Greenacres Middle School; Catlin Hess, eighth grade, Horizon Middle School; Justin Anderson, seventh grade, Mountain View Middle School; Katrina Henning, seventh grade, North Pines Middle School; and Ryan Martin, eighth grade, Spokane Valley Adventist School.

Greenacres, North Pines teams place at Regional Science Olympiad

Two Central Valley schools placed well at the Regional Science Olympiad competition at Spokane Community College on March 10.

Greenacres Middle School’s student representatives came in ninth out of 16 school groups. Teams with top wins included Melayna Bruhn and Ben Merritt, with a second in Metric Mastery, and Ashley Nilson and Ben Merritt with a second in Anatomy, Digestive and Nervous Systems. Nilson and Merritt also got a fourth place in the category of heredity. Winning a fourth place in Meteorology were Destiny Dirscherl and Brittni Ludington.

Overall team members included Sam Brubaker, Brittni Ludington, Ashley Nilson, Michael Zarecor, Melayna Bruhn, Holly May, Cody Riggs, Aubrianna Hockett, Destiny Dirscherl, Katie May, Natasha Saric, Curtis Fitzgerald, Ben Merritt, Brittney Thomas, Erick Garcia, Jack Minzes, and Ashley Tripp.

Coaches are Patrick Moore, Lee Nilson and Karin Bruhn.

A team of students from North Pines Middle School took 10th place in the Regional Science Olympiad. This is only the second year North Pines has competed in the event.

North Pines students earned several medals: second place – Meterology – Aaron Guilford; third place – Rock and Minerals – Alisha Higby and Shelena Wall; third place – Write it, Do it – Tara Nolen and Cherish Thomas.

Other students with strong finishes included: fourth place – Write It, Do It – Jordan Welter and Sarah Schelin; fifth place – Don’t Bug Me – Tara Nolen and Cherish Thomas; sixth place – Simply Machines – Jordan Welter; sixth place – Disease Detectives – Garrett Kuntz and Corbin Renfroe.

North Pines students who competed in the Science Olympiad included:

Garrett Kuntz, Corbin Renfroe, Shelena Wall, Alisha Higby, Tara Nolen, Cherish Thomas, Sarah Schelin, Jordan Welter, Aaron Guilford, Sarah Suiter, Darlington Bah, Harley Rahn, Matt Carter and Zack Johnson.

The North Pines team is coached by Dorinda Belcher, Jerad Mendenhall and Mike Yellin.