A small but dedicated group of 16 Middle School students gathered in Eliot Chapel after school on Monday to participate in the 2024 spelling bee. Olivia Halverson, Middle School Language Arts Teacher, has led the spelling bee club for the past few months, working with students to prepare them for this moment. “We’re excited to showcase all the hard work they’ve put into learning these words for you,” she said as she opened the bee and welcomed guests.
Beth Garcia, Middle School Language Arts Teacher, and Yash Shalar ’26 served as judges. Halverson lined out the rules carefully: spellers could repeat the word back, and judges would help with pronunciation; words were to be spelled letter by letter with no gestures or writing (pauses are ok), and spellers may ask for the part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc.), the etymology or origin of the word, the definition, and for it to be used in a sentence.
With that, the spellers began the bee. Halverson began with relatively easy words designed to put the spellers at ease and establish the flow of the event. (Note: each word in bold below was a 2024 spelling bee word. How would you have done?)
Round 1
Letters poured out in heaps and sips, and every speller was respectful, not rude. Hearing each student carefully spell was akin to listening to a melodic tune. There was no need to wake the audience, for the air was alive with the spark of spelling. All roads led to a great first round, with each of the 16 spellers advancing to round 2.
Round 2
There was no need to insult any of our talented students; as this peaceful event progressed with spellers hungrily devouring their words. The audience was amused as it felt like a thousand words were flitting through the air. No one spoke in a drawl, but the combat for correct spelling was on! Two students were eliminated in this round, which brought us to…
Round 3
Fourteen students were able to graduate to the third round, set in the gloaming of the day. Many were completely prepared to keep spelling behind their podium, the main piece of furniture in the scene. No one was invisible; all eyes were locked on each dapper speller, and there was no disdain, only respect, as three students took the stagecoach out of the competition.
Round 4
The audience was fascinated by the recital of precious words. Letters seemed to occupy the air as students worked to intertwine them into words. Each student was a squire of spelling, and one more fell on crookedly.
Round 5
The students continued to deliberately spell while the audience developed an appreciation for their skills while submerged by a wonderful variety of words wafting through the air. One word did intimidate, and another student went down on stitchery.
Round 6
The round began with nine students ready with a quip or some syllables. A disclaimer: this round was no fluke. Two students were bamboozled by words in this amphitheater, which led us to…
Round 7
While some students seemed demure as they approached the podium, we’re sure they were aware of the misspelling vultures circling the room. Each student had worked hard for the privilege to compete in what can certainly not be described as a nondescript bee. Innards quaking, another student was unfortunately eliminated on the word droll.
Round 8
This round began with a mere eight students as words continued to be spelled and recede into the pews. The tension felt insufferable, but there was no destitution of letters. The word steeds felled another valiant speller.
Round 9
This round’s words were nothing to snivel at, and although some went for the jugular, each speller prevailed. The lapse of elimination elongated the bee, and no attorney was needed to know the competition was fierce.
Round 10
As words were spelled with the steady beat of a metronome, the remaining competitors were incandescent with delight. Not a single speller was contemptible, and all advanced to…
Round 11
The mood in Eliot Chapel was conciliatory, an amazing perpendicularity to how our Middle School functions on a daily basis. Not a single student was insolent, nor gripped by paralysis, and we continued to spell on.
Round 12
This round was the last to be propitious, as once again all spellers prevailed. (Editors Note: We don’t know how to work divot, megaron, lymphoma, and bureaucrats into sentences here, but the students all spelled those words correctly!)
Round 13
Editor’s Note: okay, we give up. We don’t even know what some of the words in this round mean, but the students did great with grebe, dendrochronology, Trinidadian, and Macedonia. A speller went out on luciferin, which is a pigment found in luminescent organisms such as fireflies!
Round 14
This round took out a competitor on Pleiades, but tetrazzini, coccidiosis, and Shaanxi kept three spellers in the bee.
Round 15
These impish spellers sought victory and kept going, right through Okefenokee.
Round 16
There was no shoddiness underpinning this competition, and the harshened words did not eliminate anyone.
Round 17
A stodgy candidacy struck down two spellers this round! The final speller was freewheeling his way toward victory, which he seized with the word indices in the final 18th round.
Congratulations to eighth grader Andrew Li ’28 for winning the 2024 MICDS Spelling Bee! This is Li’s second year in a row to claim victory.
Our tying runners-up were sixth graders Wyatt Eggers ’30 and Rosario Kelley ’30. Eggers and Kelley, because they were at every single practice session before the bee, were awarded a free year-long subscription to the Encyclopedia Brittanica.
Li will advance to the regional round, which commences with a written regional qualifying exam on Saturday, February 24, at St. Louis University, followed by an oral competition for the top qualifiers on Saturday, March 2.