Arnold student wins county spelling bee
Delanie Weinman came out on top by out-spelling more than 55 other students in the Custer County Spelling Bee on Feb. 8. Delanie was one of ten Arnold students who participated in the Custer County Spelling Bee in Ansley.
There were two rounds of 25 words each in the written test. None of the students from across the county spelled all the words correctly. However, Eli Brast of Arnold got 49 of the first 50 words correct and Danielle Duponcheel got 48 of them right.
Nine of the 10 Arnold students moved on to the third round of 25 words.
“The list definitely got harder and this weeded the participants down to the final eleven for the oral spelling part of the competition,” Arnold teacher Nicole Badgley said.
In the final rounds, Delanie, Eli Brast and Elijah Cool competed for the title. Five of the contestants went out on the first try, narrowing the field to six. Then three contestants, including Eli, fell out after spelling a second time.
By the time the field was reduced to the top three spellers, the students verbally spelled three times. Elijah was the first to drop with the word “purported.” He ended with a third-place plaque.
Delanie and Julian Reynolds Perrin from Broken Bow continued to duke it out. Each of them spelled correctly twice more and then both misspelled “abstain” and “papal.” It then came down to spelling the word “circumstantial” and Delanie was crowned the winner of the 2023 Custer County Spelling Bee!
Delanie is now eligible to compete in Omaha at the Omaha Sports Commission’s regional spelling bee Saturday, March 18, on the UNO campus.