He’s a W-I-N-N-E-R once again

LEWISTON -- Third time was the charm for Navtaj Singh to earn his second spelling bee win.

The sixth grader from Lincoln Middle School in Pullman went head-to-head for 10 rounds with Nya Bonner, an eighth grader from Timberline High School in Weippe-Pierce. There were three times where Bonner incorrectly spelled a word to open up the chance for Singh to win. But twice, Singh too misspelled the word and the round started over, until his third try, spelling “clearance” correctly for the win at the 37th Annual Inland Northwest Regional Spelling Bee Saturday at Lewis-Clark State College

Singh won the event last year as well and tied for 32nd when he went to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in June. This year when he goes to Washington, D.C., he’s bringing, his mom, Navdeep, dad, Gurvinder, and sister, Gurveena, who were all in attendance for his win.

Returning from the national spelling bee, Singh has learned some new strategies.

“Ask a lot of questions,” he said.

During the spelling bee, Singh would always ask the pronouncer, Andy Hanson, vice president of student affairs at LCSC, to give a definition, use it in a sentence, the word’s origin or if there were any root words available.

He would also look down and “write” the word on his hand using his finger, a practice he saw other spellers use and decided to implement for himself.

Although going 10 rounds against Bonner increased the intensity for Singh, for Bonner she was right where she wanted to be.

“I wasn’t too worried once I got to the top three,” she said. “That’s all I really wanted to get to.”

When she incorrectly spelled sardonic, accidentally adding an extra “n,” it opened the door for Singh to take the win. Last year Bonner took sixth or seventh and misspelled a word by forgetting a “z,” so she said she overcompensated with the extra “n” this year.

However, she still made it to the podium and that’s “all that matters,” she said.

She decided to have a celebratory (a word she correctly spelled herself) meal at Taco Bell because she was hungry after the competition.

Henry Lustig, an eighth grader from Prairie Elementary in Cottonwood, came in third.

There were 22 contestants in the hour-and-a-half spelling bee from Lewiston, Moscow, Asotin, Culdesac, Genesee and Orofino. The youngest was Benjamin Corbin, a third grader from Sunnyside Elementary in Pullman. There were also five eighth graders including Bonner; Lustig; Caroline McDermott, Jenifer Middle School in Lewiston; Hadley Hayvaz, Sacajawea Middle School in Lewiston; and Hannah Johnson-Leung, St. Mary’s Parish School in Moscow.

In the practice round, Westley Steiger, a fourth grader from Orchards Elementary in Lewiston, laughed when he got his word: goober. Through smiles and giggles he correctly spelled the word that means “a foolish person” or “a peanut,” with some laughter from the audience. In the next round, Steiger chuckled again when he got his word, something that no one in a spelling bee wants to accomplish, “failure,” which he successfully spelled.

Throughout (a word spelled correctly by Johnson-Leung) the spelling bee, the competitors fantastically (a word spelled correctly by Linda Lanman, a fourth grader from McGhee Elementary in Lewiston) handled the pressures and the tough words. Some looked down as they spelled words in their heads or looked out into the audience in deep concentration.

If they were stagestruck (a word correctly spelled by Adrian Bolz, a fourth grader from Culdesac School), they didn’t show it other than some nervous foot tapping.

The judges once had to consult the rulebook when a contestant changed her spelling after she had already begun to spell the word. Even if the judges wanted to be charitable (a word correctly spelled by Claire Harper, a fifth grader from Webster Elementary in Lewiston), the action was not allowed.

Round after round, speller after speller fell to difficult (a word correctly spelled by Singh) words like mischief, soppiness and Kodak, for a total of 18 rounds. When some contestants got a word wrong they would wince (a word correctly spelled by Max Talbott-Williams, a fifth grader at Lena Whitmore Elementary in Moscow) and went back to their seats with acceptance (a word correctly spelled by Dash Spellman, a fifth grader from A.B. McDonald Elementary in Moscow) of their fate.

All the spellers received praise (a word correctly spelled by Bonner) for their hard work from the audience no matter where they placed.

The spelling bee is sponsored by St. Joseph Regional Medical Center, LCSC, and the Lewiston Tribune and Moscow-Pullman Daily News. The first place winner receives travel and accommodations to the national spelling bee and the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award as well as a trophy, online subscriptions to Britannica and Merriam-Webster and other swag items from LCSC, the Tribune and St. Joe’s. Second place and third place also receive trophies and the items from the sponsors.

Brewster may be contacted at kbrewster@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2297.