The winners of the system-level competition in the 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee were: (l-r) Mikayla Woodard, first place; Justin Sward, second place; and Whitley Wright, third place. Woodard will now complete in the region spelling bee set for Saturday, March 6, at the offices of The Augusta Chronicle in Augusta. Mikayla Woodard, a fifth-grade student at LCES, won the systemlevel competition in the 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

She is the daughter of Andre Woodard and Dr. Michelle Mason- Woodard of Lincolnton.

Justin Sward, a fourth-grader at the elementary school, captured second place, and Whitley Wright, an eighth-grader at LCMS, took thirdplace honors in the spelling competition, which was held Friday, February 5, in the media center at LCMS/ LCHS.

Woodard will go on to compete in the region spelling bee, scheduled for Saturday, March 6, at the offices of The Augusta Chronicle in Augusta. Sward will serve as the alternate for the competition.

Also participating in the systemlevel spelling bee were:

Fourth Grade – Jesse Partridge, Demontrez Ivey, and Brandtley Vickery.

Fifth Grade – Danielle Carson, Ashton Belangia, and Jakayla Mason.

Sixth Grade – Laney Aycock, Bonnie Arledge, Delexica Durham, and Will Bonner.

Seventh Grade – Wes Durden, Austin Shively, Shelby Hinson, and Sharekia Smith.

Eighth Grade – Gideon Smith, Andy Ray Wengrow, and Aubrey Garcia.

Among the words called out for the young scholars to spell were inane, impetuous, ambivalent, postmortem, plausible, alliteration, amicable, femininity, prosecute, contiguous, gradient, soliloquy, accommodate, pernicious, infinitesimal, innocuous, precocious, azure, artichoke, tarragon, mohair, borax, arsenal, macramé, elixir, saffron, albatross, nougat, rouge, vogue, rapport, camouflage, genre, and debacle.

The winning words were “saboteur” and “renaissance.”

Jeanie Smith, media specialist at LCMS/LCHS, served as the caller for the event. The judges were Carol Olson, a gifted education teacher at LCES; Dionne Mills, the guidance counselor at LCMS; Shawn Davis, the graduation coach at the middle school; and Susan Pilgrim, a seventhgrade language arts teacher at LCMS, who also serves as the spelling bee coordinator.

“I’m very proud of all of the students who took part in the spelling bee,” stated Pilgrim. “I’m especially proud of the way they behaved and how supportive they were of each other.”

She went on to say that she appreciates everyone who helped made the event a success.

Following the spelling bee, all of the students were awarded certificates of participation and treated to ice cream by LCMS.

The National Spelling Bee was in- stituted in 1925 by The Louisville Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky. Nine students took part in the first national finals, and the winning word was “gladiolus.”

Scripps acquired the rights to the program in 1941.

This year, more than 10 million students at the local level and over 270 national finalists will be involved in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.