Students move on to county spelling bee

Students at Monroe Intermediate School competed with one another to determine who the best spellers were at the school last week.

The school hosted its annual spelling bee Thursday, featuring students who scored high enough on a previous written exam to make the cut.

"It's harder than you think," principal Anne Marie Covey said.

Covey said it can be easy to students and adults to misspell even the most recognizable words because they're required to vocally spell out the word, an act that many people don't have a lot of experience with.

"A lot of people can write the word out and recognize if they've misspelled it ... students can't do that (during a spelling bee,)" Covey said.

This year, the top spellers from MIS were Chevy Stanton in first place, Pamela Pena taking second and Lilly Duncan finishing third. The trio will compete at the county-wide spelling bee scheduled to take place Feb. 2 at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs, starting at 9:30 a.m. The students placing at that bee will take part in the state-wide bee March 24, also at WWCC in Rock Springs. Green River has seen some success in spelling bee competitions in the past, with back-to-back Wyoming spelling bee champion Victoria Allen representing the state at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. in 2013 and 2014.

Last week didn't solely belong to the school's spellers. Covey said the school hosted a geography bee sponsored by National Geographic last Tuesday. She said students enjoyed categories like "Weird But True," which tested competitors' knowledge of odd facts. The top two students in that competition were Payton Maggi, who took first place, and Silas Chetterbock, who took second.