Spellbinding: R.L. Bland's Gould outlasts stiff competition to claim regional crown

Gould receives an expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee from May 25-30. The Exponent Telegram sponsored the bee.

RESA 7 Spelling Bee Coordinator Jeovanna Comer said 41 students were registered from Doddridge, Harrison, Gilmer, Lewis, Marion, Randolph, Taylor and Upshur counties.

Gould could not contain his excitement after winning the two-hour competition. He jumped for joy, and the crowd erupted into applause.

“I studied through the lists over and over, focusing on the ones I missed,” said Gould, who looked directly at the floor and spelled each word rhythmically, tapping his finger on his pants pocket.

He is the son of Doug and Priscilla Gould of Weston.

“Andrew gets in the rhythm and concentrates,” his father said.

Runner-up Louis Aldridge of Bridgeport is a seventh-grader who is homeschooled. He has competed with Gould several times at the regional level.

“It’s really scary, but it’s exciting. I was a little shaky on the last word. I thought I knew it,” Aldridge said.

MacKenzie Gould, a sixth-grader from Bridgeport Middle, came in third place.

Savannah Jones, a Big Elm fifth-grader, took fourth-place honors.

Jones said she used the spelling bee website to help her study.

“You can type in words to test for every language. And my mom gave me oral tests. I took five or six tests a week,” Jones said.

Karinna Fazenbaker, a West Fairmont eighth-grader, took fifth place.

After the first 45 minutes of competition, about half of the student spellers remained. They correctly spelled words such as “spitz,” “muumuu,” “haversack,” “igneous,” “wikiwiki,” “chinchilla” and “linden.”

The competition was stopped twice by contestants who wanted to hear their spellings of words. They were satisfied with the recording, and the contest continued.

Julia Van Volkenburg of RESA 7 was the pronouncer. She challenged the students with words like “croquet,” “chipotle,” “innate,” “diagnosis” and “plateau.”

Participants were allowed to ask the word’s language of origin, its definition and a sentence using the word. Aldridge took that opportunity with each word given to him.

Some words that stumped competitors and narrowed down the field to four were “bequeath,” “alfalfa,” “boutique,” “homburg,” “benevolent” and “impasse.”

Four students went multiple rounds before a misspelling of “staccato” brought the number down to three.

The last several rounds were intense, with Aldridge and Gould correctly spelling several words, including “kuruma,” “amphibious,” “borzoi” and “hafiz.” Aldridge then misspelled “batik,” allowing Gould to spell that word, plus one more, to take the top trophy.