The sweet spell of success

A large smoked sausage made of beef, pork and pork fat seasoned with pepper and garlic.

That’s the definition of mortadella, which is the word Navtaj Singh spelled correctly to win the 36th Annual Inland Northwest Regional Spelling Bee on Saturday.

Singh was up against 22 spellers from the region including Lewiston, Asotin, Moscow, Orofino, Culdesac, Genesee, Juliaetta, Cottonwood and Weippe in grades from fourth to eighth. After a total of 17 rounds, the fifth grader from Sunnyside Elementary School in Pullman was named the winner at the Lewis-Clark State College Williams Conference Center.

Despite the hard words, Singh wasn’t fazed, “I don’t really feel stressed,” he said.

Even though he won by correctly spelling a type of sausage, Singh said he’s not going to celebrate by eating some sausage. However, his dad, Gurvinder Singh, said they are celebrating by going out for dinner at a restaurant (R-E-S-T-A-U-R-A-N-T, which was correctly spelled by Nya Bonner, a seventh grader from Timberline High School).

Navtaj Singh said he practiced every day to prepare for the spelling bee. His sister, Gurveena Singh, also helped him practice. She was in the spelling bee five years ago when she was in third grade and was the youngest participant at that spelling bee and came in third.

His mother, Nadeep Singh, said Navtaj learned to read when he was 3 years old. His dad says Navtaj and Gurveena are both “big time readers,” which he said contributes to their spelling abilities.

The winner of the spelling bee will go on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C., with travel and accommodation paid for as part of the first-place prize, along with a chaperone. Navtaj said he’s bringing his dad.

In second place was Kadynce Scott, an eighth grader from Sacajawea Junior High. In third was Luyi Wang, a fifth grader from A.B. McDonald Elementary School in Moscow.

The final three contestants continued with no misspelled words for eight rounds until Wang incorrectly spelled “titian,” meaning “of brownish-orange color.” Scott was out in the next round, misspelling “blottesque,” which means “painted with heavy touches or blotlike brushwork.”

Throughout the spelling bee, some spellers had no hesitation (H-E-S-I-T-A-T-I-O-N, a word correctly spelled by Stone Ausman, an eighth grader from Asotin Junior/Senior High School) when spelling out their words. Some words gave students pause like kosher, bifurcate, nival and parochial. However, when a word tried to discombobulate (D-I-S-C-O-M-B-O-B-U-L-A-T-E, a word Scott spelled correctly) a speller, they asked for definitions, the origin of the word or to have the word used in the sentence. Others didn’t dillydally, (D-I-L-L-Y-D-A-L-L-Y, a word spelled correctly by Emma Marzolf, a fifth grader from Webster Elementary School) in spelling their words.

Even though the spelling bee continued for about an hour-and-a-half, spellers didn’t become wearisome (W-E-A-R-I-S-O-M-E, a word correctly spelled by Wang). Participants also showed congeniality (C-O-N-G-E-N-I-A-L-I-T-Y, also spelled correctly by Wang) with their competitors and members of the audience were congratulatory (C-O-N-G-R-A-T-U-L-A-T-O-R-Y, spelled correctly by Scott) whenever a speller got their word right.

However, no one went home empty-handed, with awards and prizes given by sponsors LCSC, Gritman Medical Center, Lewiston Tribune and Moscow-Pullman Daily News. All participants received a medallion (M-E-D-A-L-L-I-O-N, correctly spelled by Wang), a certificate and a duffle bag, among other awards.

First, second and third places received trophies and other prizes including a yeti tumbler, iPad case, stress ball, and of course, a Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

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